The Braves and left-hander Martín Pérez have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The Octagon client will presumably be in major league camp in spring training.
Pérez, 35 in April, is coming off a mostly lost season due to injury. He signed a one-year, $5MM pact with the White Sox to serve as a veteran innings eater on the rebuilding club. That didn’t work out as the southpaw was on the injured list by mid-April for inflammation in his throwing elbow. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with a flexor strain and it was questionable whether he would make it back from the IL.
The veteran did eventually come back in August but landed back on the IL in September due to a shoulder strain. Around the IL stints, he gave the White Sox 56 innings with a 3.54 earned run average, 19.3% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 39% ground ball rate.
For most of his career, Pérez has been a finesse lefty. His fastball has never averaged more than 94.2 miles per hour and has usually been a tick or two below that. He was in the 91-92 mph range in 2023 and 2024. He dropped down below 90 in 2025 but the injuries may have played a part in that. He has a six-pitch mix with a four-seamer, sinker, cutter, slider, curveball and changeup.
He has mostly been able to provide passable results. In his 1,631 2/3 career innings, he has a 4.41 ERA despite striking out just 16.3% of batters faced. His 8.3% walk rate is around average and his 48.4% ground ball rate is a few ticks better than par. He managed to get his ERA down to 2.89 with the Rangers in 2022, and parlayed that into a $19.65MM qualifying offer for 2023, which he accepted. But that campaign looks like a clear outlier, as he was back in the 4.50 ERA range for the next two seasons.
Atlanta has a good rotation on paper but with question marks all throughout the group. Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo López, Hurston Waldrep and Grant Holmes are likely the top six options right now. Sale won a Cy Young in 2024 but has generally been pretty injury prone in the seasons around that and will turn 37 soon. Schwellenbach missed the final three months of 2025 due to an elbow fracture. Strider missed most of 2024 due to ulnar collateral ligament surgery and posted a 4.45 ERA in his return last year. Shoulder surgery limited López to one start last year. Waldrep had a strong 2025 but still has fewer than 65 big league innings under his belt. Holmes has a partially torn UCL and is trying non-surgical rehab but will be a question mark until he ramps up in camp.
Given all that uncertainty, depth will be important. Bryce Elder is on the roster but posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of the past two seasons. Prospect Didier Fuentes was rushed to the majors in 2025 and looked overmatched, allowing 20 earned runs in 13 innings.
Atlanta was connected to free agents Lucas Giolito and Chris Bassitt earlier this week, so perhaps a significant move will be forthcoming soon. For now, Pérez gives them a bit of extra depth without taking up a roster spot. He’ll look to pitch his way onto the roster. His chances of succeeding will naturally depend on his own performance but also on the team-wide health situation as things develop in the coming months.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
A+ bargain
Another fringe pitcher.
On a minor league deal, for depth so not a bad signing. If he doesn’t work out no great loss.
I like it.
Good pickup
He didn’t have a terrible year last year, did he? How is this not a MLB contract?
Probably will be or he can opt out. Lot of pitchers out there who are better options.
He was hurt most of last year and he’s almost 35.
@sandlot
I think he didn’t get a MLB deal because of his health last season and limited upside. I am surprised that he didn’t get a guaranteed deal either though. For most of his career he has been your prototypical #5 starter, not great but not terrible guy who can chow down on some innings. While that’s not exciting, it does have SOME value. Not a bad player to sign on a minor league deal. Here’s hoping this isn’t the braves SP addition haha.
I was scared the Sox were going to bring him back.
WSox picked up its end of the “net” 8.5mil mutual option. Perez gambled/declined.
I like this for the Braves. Perez could be a nice under the radar addition to the back of the Braves rotation
I thought he was going to get a MLB deal.
Why he declined his player option again?
Probably knew the White Sox were going to decline their end, so he beat them to the punch.
Perez on a minor league deal is solid. This dude is an innings eater and solid 5th starter if healthy.
Elder could have a career very similar to Perez imo. They both throw a lot of innings and really know how to pitch and occasionally have flashes of being better than a #5.
Crazy all these minor league deals. Shows you how ridiculous these contracts are. 60 mil for tucker. There needs to be a specific major league deal for some of these veterans. Minor is ridiculous
I ain’t claiming they are equals but compare the bottom line career results to Giolito and most would be surprised. Yet Perez is “passable” and doesn’t get a big league deal largely because of K rate.
Soft tossing lefty at the end of his career but hey, it’s a minor league deal so doesn’t hurt…just roll the dice. I hope this isn’t it as far as Bassitt or Giolito, etc.
Could have used him a lot last year. Much better option than Carlos Carrasco.
After proving he’s healthy in AAA, Perez’ minor league deal becomes an advantage for a midseason Braves’ role over rostered out-of-options LHPs Wentz and Suarez, who muxt excel by Spring or face waiver claims.
At the beginning of the off season AA said we would; not sign a SP if he could start a playoff game ..a month in it adjusted to a SP who could give us innings/depth…I guess it’s now down to SP who can breath. Methinks we spent too much on the bullpen and got priced out of any decent SP. Perez can’t break a pane of glass with his fastball at this stage of his career.
Good depth guy. I wonder if it signals they are out on Gio?
Martin will probably pitch on the Braves MLB team at some point this year. Not a bad pickup since the Kim fleecing.