Oliver Perez worked in the Mexican League this winter and he showed up early to spring training. Didn’t help, though, as he made his spring training debut against the Braves over the weekend and gave up four runs in two innings, walked three guys and only got the ball up to 86 m.p.h. Once, that is. Most of the time his fastball was in the low-to-mid 80s.
No, you shouldn’t make too much of spring training stats, but Perez has way more riding on his spring training than anyone in Mets camp, so he needed to be more effective than the guys who are able to give the standard “I was just workin’ on stuff” excuse.
But there is a bright side: if Perez had come out throwing bullets this spring, the Mets would have to give some serious consideration to placing him in an actual role coming out of camp. If he continues to stink up the joint, however, cutting him loose will be way easier.
