Padres acquire lefty Martin Perez from Pirates
The Padres have landed left-hander Martin Perez in a trade with the Pirates, according to reporter Francys Romero. Left-handed pitching prospect Ronaldys Jimenez will head to Pittsburgh in exchange.
There were some pre-deadline rumblings that the Bucs could deal from their relative pitching surplus, and Pittsburgh ended up moving Quinn Priester to the Red Sox and now Perez to San Diego, albeit for more projectionable players than players that could help the Pirates win immediately.
There is also a financial element to the Perez trade, as the Padres will receive some money from the Pirates to cover a portion of the roughly $2.5M remaining of Perez’s $8M salary for the season.
After signing that one-year, $8M pact last offseason, there was always an expectation that the Pirates would look to flip Perez at the deadline in some fashion. The veteran southpaw didn’t help his market by posting a 5.20 ERA in 83 innings, and he also spent a month on the injured list recovering from a groin strain. Perez’s Statcast page has a troubling amount of blue ink, with a set of below-average metrics in every category except grounder rate.
The 33-year-old Perez does bring plenty of experience and an ability to eat innings, which is no small matter for a San Diego rotation that is currently relying heavily on a lot of younger arms behind ace Dylan Cease. With Joe Musgrove still on the IL and Yu Darvish away from the team dealing with a family matter, the trio of Michael King, Randy Vasquez and Matt Waldron have all been logging a lot of innings, leading the Padres to explore for some rotation help.
The bulk of San Diego’s deadline moves focused on the bullpen, so while bolstering the relief corps does aid the rotation in a more indirect fashion, the Perez trade brings on a veteran arm to cover some starts down the stretch.
The 18-year-old Jimenez was an international signing for the Padres in 2023, and he has started his pro career this year with three starts for the Padres’ Dominican Summer League squad, delivering a 1.50 ERA in six innings of work. Jimenez is a lottery ticket-type of prospect for the Pirates to develop over the long term, which the club probably counts as a good result from its investment in Perez.
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