8-14-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
In the midst of a historically awful slump, the Pirates will face a familiar foe in opposing starting pitcher, Martín Pérez – who spent the first four months of this season as their teammate before a deadline deal shipped him out to San Diego.
Perez had a solid start to the season with Pittsburgh, posting a 2.86 ERA over his first 6 starts this year before imploding with a 6.89 ERA over his final 10 games with the Pirates prior to being sent to the Padres.
He has performed well in his first two game in brown and yellow, combining 13 innings and a 2.08 ERA with 13 strikeouts to just 2 walks. All three runs allowed came off solo home runs, which have been a recurring issue for Perez.
Looking at his percentiles, he hasn’t really excelled at anything this season, focusing mostly on a sinker/cutter/changeup approach; however, he mixed things up during his first two starts with the Padres, dropping his sinker usage and utilizing his changeup as his main pitch with the cutter and curve as the other pairings.
In those two games which, disclaimer, came against the Rockies and the Marlins, Perez racked up 15 and 13 whiffs, respectively, and had an average exit velocity against his changeup under 84MPH.
He runs the both the changeup and curve down and in against righties while pushing the cutter out and away. Bear down and protect the lower part of the zone. Watch for wildness and attack hanging pitches.
Let’s Go Bucs!
Steel City Pirates 
So after tonight’s game I feel like we should have gotten more for trading Perez. He has pitched really well for the padres since the trade. I am correct for this assumption or not?
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He pitched well for us initially too. And was REALLY good in 2022. That said, as I mentioned in the article, the Padres have had him basically throw out the sinker and focus on a changeup-heavy approach, which has worked well for the Venezuelan vet. The Pirates tried a number of things to get Perez back on track and just couldn’t get him where they needed him to be. Also, they had an excess of pitching and shipping him out made the most sense. The organization is reportedly very high on Ronaldys Jimenez, enough so that they ate nearly all of the Perez contract to nab him in the return. He’s a lottery ticket but that’s often what this team does with these types of trades.
Final point: Perez has had his post-Pirates success against the Rockies, Marlins and now the Pirates, who are the three worst offenses (per wRC+) behind only the White Sox. His stuff looks improved but just something to keep in mind with his production so far.
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Great insights, glad I cane across this reply and for the initial question.
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