The D-backs have agreed to a minor league contract with free agent catcher Michael Perez, per their transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Reno.
Perez, 32, has played in parts of six big league seasons, splitting time with the Rays, Pirates and Mets from 2018-23 and accruing more than three years of service time along the way. He’s a career .179/.248/.306 hitter in 599 major league plate appearances but draws strong defensive ratings, particularly when it comes to his ability to block balls in the dirt and control the running game (28.7% caught-stealing rate).
Though he hasn’t appeared in the majors with Arizona, Perez is signing on for his second stint with the D-backs organization. He appeared in 24 games for Reno last year as well. The lefty-hitting backstop split the 2024 season between the Triple-A affiliates for the D-backs, Orioles and Mariners, batting a combined .259/.354/.453 in 246 plate appearances. He’s a lifetime .246/.336/.424 hitter in 272 Triple-A games.
The Diamondbacks haven’t gotten much production out of Gabriel Moreno and Jose Herrera behind the plate this year — their combined .215/.291/.273 line translates to a 61 wRC+ that ranks 27th in MLB — and they’ve been without prospect Adrian Del Castillo all season due to a shoulder injury. He’s on the minor league injured list. Glove-first veterans Rene Pinto and Aramis Garcia have both hit well in Reno, even when adjusting for the heightened run-scoring environment there, but Perez will give them some extra depth who can also handle first base.
We miss him! Mets fans everywhere!
Linked the wrong Michael Perez
Known slugger with a 3 home run game Michael Perez
Wrong Michael in the link tho
Are you guys literally ever going to stop linking the wrong players? You’ve been doing this for YEARS and you never correct them lmao
I’m pretty sure MLB TR uses Sport Reference’s auto-linker, which will automatically link a player’s name in the text. I used it a few times for the blog I write for, but I found it easier to just link it myself. But given they probably have a much larger workload, and have to link every player (whereas I didn’t), I can see why they use it.
You are absolutely right although when using these kind of autolink features it never hurts to use some common advice and double check when you are writing about players with common surnames like Sanchez, Perez, Johnson…
Yeah, that’s why I just stopped using it. In the end, I used just as much effort to do it manually than to use tha auto-linker.
– They do make this mistake sometimes, but in my experience they have certainly corrected them sometimes. Calm down a little.