Left-hander Oliver Perez has signed a two-year, $7 million deal to join the Nationals’ bullpen, according to Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com.
Perez washed out as a starter because of his extreme control problems and came dangerously close to being totally out of the majors for good by age 30, but resurrected his career as a reliever and put together a strong run from 2012-2015.
During that four-season span he logged 182 innings with a 3.31 ERA, striking out 11.1 batters per nine innings and holding opponents to a .239 batting average.
Perez is 34 years old and still struggles to consistently throw strikes, but $3.5 million per season for a veteran setup man is an inexpensive price tag and he’s capable of handling right-handed hitters well enough to be more than a situational southpaw for manager Dusty Baker. At the very least he’s death to lefty bats.