Headlines

  • Dodgers Sign Miguel Rojas To Contract Extension
  • Jake McGee Retires
  • Royals Re-Sign Zack Greinke
  • Orioles To Decline Five-Year Lease Extension At Camden Yards, Seeking Longer-Term Agreement With Maryland Stadium Authority
  • Mariners, Dylan Moore Agree to Three-Year Extension
  • Blue Jays Sign Chad Green
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2022-23 MLB Free Agent List
    • Top 50 Free Agents
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2023
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Arbitration Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Diamondbacks To Select Oliver Perez, Designate Caleb Baragar

By Steve Adams | April 6, 2022 at 1:24pm CDT

The D-backs have selected the contract of veteran left-handed reliever Oliver Perez and, in a corresponding roster move, designated fellow southpaw Caleb Baragar for assignment, according to the team’s transactions page.

Perez, 40, joined the D-backs on a minor league deal on March 21 and has logged 3 1/3 scoreless innings with just one hit allowed thus far during Cactus League play. This will mark his second stint with the D-backs, for whom he also pitched in 2014-15.

Perez has spent the past four seasons in Cleveland, pitching to a combined 2.57 ERA with a 28.5% strikeout rate against a 6.8% walk rate over the life of 94 2/3 innings. Only 3 2/3 of those innings came in 2021, however. Perez was cut loose early in the year, and he spent the rest of the season pitching with los Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League. He’d been slated to return to los Toros in 2022, signing there during the lockout and announcing his intention to retire after the season. However, once it became clear that the season could get underway only about a week later than originally scheduled, Perez reversed course and signed on with a Major League organization.

It still seems as though this could be the final year of a lengthy and largely successful Major League career for Perez, who had a roller-coaster run as a starting pitcher early in his career but reinvented himself as a reliever in his 30s. Since moving to the ’pen on a full-time basis in 2012, Perez carries a 3.45 ERA in 350 innings spread across five different organizations.

Turning to the 27-year-old Baragar, this marks his second DFA of the spring. A ninth-round pick of the Giants back in 2016, he’s seen Major League time with San Francisco in each of the past two seasons, pitching to a combined 2.78 ERA with an 18.8% strikeout rate, a 9.1% walk rate and a 21.7% ground-ball rate.

Despite that strong bottom-line run prevention, Baragar has now been designated for assignment both by the Giants and by the D-backs, who claimed him off waivers last month. Fielding-independent marks don’t paint as rosy a picture as Baragar’s more rudimentary ERA, due largely to his pedestrian K-BB% and an extremely low home-run rate — the latter of which doesn’t mesh particularly well with his sky-high 58.1% fly-ball rate.

Over the past two seasons, nearly 14% of the fly-balls put in play by Major League hitters have gone for home runs, whereas Baragar has seen just 5.3% of his flies clear the fence. Playing his home games at the spacious Oracle Park and inducing pop-ups at an above-average rate have both surely helped him, but it nevertheless seems inevitable that he’s in for some regression with regard to that minuscule homer-to-flyball ratio.

Baragar, who’ll turn 28 this weekend, has multiple minor league options remaining, so he could be looked at by another club as a possible depth option in the bullpen. He’s been tagged for an 8.01 ERA and surrendered nine home runs through 30 1/3 innings in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting, but he carries a 4.06 ERA and respectable strikeout and walk percentages in 421 minor league innings on the whole. The D-backs will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through waivers.

Share 0 Retweet 4 Send via email0

Arizona Diamondbacks Transactions Caleb Baragar Oliver Perez

Tigers Announce Several Transactions, Finalize Opening Day Roster
Main
Jordan Hicks To Begin Season In Cardinals’ Rotation
View Comments (18)

Comments

  1. Milwaukee-2208

    10 months ago

    Oliver Perez is still active? Wow! Thought he was done years ago

    Reply
    • Cohn Joppolella

      10 months ago

      Life finds a way….

      Reply
      • johnsilver

        10 months ago

        Maybe having to play in that wonderful place Tijuana for a bit last year gave him the drive needed to make an MLB roster this spring.

        Reply
        • Polish Hammer

          10 months ago

          At 40 years old going home to Mexico to play ball gives him the drive needed to do what’s he’s been doing his whole life? He had the drive last year, the dumb mlb rules drove out the LOOGYs from the game.

  2. AshamedMethGoat

    10 months ago

    The bottom of the NL West is gonna be godawful this season. Between the directionless Rockies and rebuilding Dbacks, the other 3 teams will have close to 40 “gimme” games in division. Wouldn’t at all be surprised to see the Dodgers win close to 110 while the Padres and Giants go for 95+ (assuming the Giants don’t regress as much as expected).

    Reply
    • SpendNuttinWinNuttin

      10 months ago

      The Rockies finished 5 games behind Padres, 2 behind Mets, 3 games better than last years Cubs. I’m not sure they’re this bottom dweller everyone makes them out to be. They only really lost Gray and Story but got Bryant and Grichuk. The organization is awful, constantly questionable moves, but their roster doesn’t scream 100+ losses like Arizona, Pittsburgh, Baltimore…

      Reply
      • PiratesFan1981

        10 months ago

        @SpendNuttinWinNuttin Normally I find fault with many of your post and biased opinions of Pittsburgh. But this time your right. 52-110 for the Pirates seems about right. Growing pains for some younger players and weeding out the remaining Huntington left overs, seems to be the course. Much like last year, there will be a cycle of players and some releases. It’s going to be a setup for a more productive year next year.

        I expect you to bring up again, “Nutting will not spend to help the club.” We’ve gone round for round and the Pirates are cycling through their prospects right now to find a winning formula. Even I wouldn’t invest 50-60 million (even with Art Moreno bank account) into an unfinished product. Just to be another Phillies or Mets organization trying to cut corners but comes up empty.

        Reply
  3. SpendNuttinWinNuttin

    10 months ago

    Let’s goooooo Oliver!

    Reply
  4. dylan1g

    10 months ago

    This guy will not pass through the Mets. They terribly need left-handed relief pitching.

    Reply
    • phenomenalajs

      10 months ago

      Nah, they’ll roll with Shreve. I don’t see them bringing anyone else aboard unless they decide to put deGrom on the 60-day.

      Reply
  5. Robrock30

    10 months ago

    Wow Oliver Perez that is a name from the Past. The Mets couldn’t get him to go to the Minors as he had too much service Time and he refused. How is he still pitching?

    Reply
  6. johnnieleeboo

    10 months ago

    Has Fangraphs calculated how many days Service Time Oliver can afford before he owes tax on his Social Security?

    Reply
  7. T.T.P.

    10 months ago

    Baragar was really good prior to the sticky substance crackdown… unfortunately it seems like he was a spider tack merchant

    Reply
  8. PiratesFan1981

    10 months ago

    I remember when he was tried out at a starter and some believe he could be. Oh that was the days we saw pen arms as starters in Pittsburgh. Kris Benson was another one. The system was so bad that you couldn’t give away the players. Better days…..

    Reply
  9. HBan22

    10 months ago

    Oliver Perez’s first season of professional ball was in 1999 as a 17 year old. Really cool to see him still pitching, has to be one of the last players left in MLB that played in pro ball in the 90’s.

    Reply
    • Rexwood

      10 months ago

      AZ is a subsidiary of AARP

      Reply
  10. No Soup For Yu!

    10 months ago

    I read “21.7% ground-ball rate” and thought for sure that had to be a typo. Somehow, it is not. In the last 10 years, among pitchers with at least 40 innings, only two others have had a ground ball rate lower than that.

    Reply
  11. How About Them A's

    10 months ago

    Here’s hoping the A’s pickup Caleb. Stats look pretty decent and could be a solid addition to the BP.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.
Log in Register

ad: 300x250_1_MLB

    Top Stories

    Dodgers Sign Miguel Rojas To Contract Extension

    Jake McGee Retires

    Royals Re-Sign Zack Greinke

    Orioles To Decline Five-Year Lease Extension At Camden Yards, Seeking Longer-Term Agreement With Maryland Stadium Authority

    Mariners, Dylan Moore Agree to Three-Year Extension

    Blue Jays Sign Chad Green

    Rays Extend Yandy Diaz

    Dexter Fowler Announces Retirement

    Mets Sign Jeff McNeil To Four-Year Extension

    Red Sox, Marlins Swap Matt Barnes For Richard Bleier

    Darren O’Day Announces Retirement

    Braves Extend Manager Brian Snitker Through 2025

    Rays Sign Pete Fairbanks To Extension

    Royals Sign Aroldis Chapman To One-Year Deal

    Athletics Sign Jesús Aguilar

    Orioles Acquire Cole Irvin From A’s

    Astros Name Dana Brown General Manager

    Rays Extend Jeffrey Springs

    Royals, Red Sox Swap Adalberto Mondesi For Josh Taylor

    Red Sox Designate Matt Barnes For Assignment

    Recent

    Yankees Sign Ian Hamilton To Minor League Deal

    Quick Hits: Muñoz, Sadler, Vavra

    Brandon Crawford Discusses Offseason, Upcoming Campaign

    Dodgers Notes: Valenzuela, Urias, Vargas, Muncy

    Giants, Logan Webb Have Talked About Long-Term Extension

    Reds Sign Nick Plummer, Nick Martini To Minors Contracts

    Royals Looking Into Extensions For Young Players

    Dodgers Sign Miguel Rojas To Contract Extension

    Red Sox Sign Jake Faria To Minor League Contract

    Giants Sign Roberto Perez

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Offseason Outlook Series
    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Go Ad-Free
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2023
    • 2022-23 MLB Free Agent List
    • MLB Player Chats
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    ad: 160x600_MLB

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • Feeds by Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    hide arrowsFOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top
    Close

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version