Report: Red Sox sign Twins LHP Martin Perez

At a time when there are rumors of the Red Sox intensifying trade talks involving David Price, the team moved Thursday night to line up some back-end starters.

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Red Sox agreed to a one-year, $6-million deal for Martin Perez, with a club option for $6.25 million in 2021.

Perez, 28, pitched for Minnesota last season and was 10-7 with a 5.12 ERA in 32 games — all but three of them starts. Previously, he had spent parts of seven seasons with the Texas Rangers, for whom he was 53-56 with a 5.17 ERA.

Perez has a history of giving up a lot of hits (10.1 per nine innings over his career) and that was the case again in 2019, allowing 184 in 165.1 innings. His WHIP (1.518) and his FIP was 4.66.

But beyond those numbers, the Red Sox may have been attracted to the fact that



Perez was the victim of some bad luck. The average exit velocity on balls hit against him was just 85.4 mph, putting him in the top four percent in baseball. Meanwhile, just 29.7 percent of the balls hit against him came at a hard-hit rate, placing him in the top seven percent in MLB.

The Red Sox apparently believe that, with some adjustments and better luck, Perez can at least be a serviceable, back-of-the-rotation starter.

The timing of Perez's signing is something of a surprise since the free-agent starting pitching market has been, other than a handful of front-line starters at the top of the class, slow to develop. The expectation was that the Red Sox would wait until perhaps after the first of the year and then choose from among the less expensive starters remaining, putting themselves in position to perhaps find a bargain as free agents tend to lower demands with the approach of spring training.

Then again, Perez's $6 million salary — and an option for 2021 — would seem to indicate that, despite a sub-par year when he earned $3.5 million, there were other suitors for Perez and the Sox felt the need to move quickly to secure him.

As currently constituted, the Sox have four lefties in their rotation, with Perez joining Chris Sale, David Price, and Eduardo Rodriguez. For the moment, Nathan Eovaldi is the team's sole righthanded starter in the wake of Rick Porcello's departure from the team. Porcello, a free agent, signed a one-year deal with the New York Mets Thursday for $10 million.

In the meantime, the Red Sox remain engaged with a number of teams who have an interest in trading for Price, who, until earlier this week, was the game's highest-paid pitcher. The Red Sox are intent on reducing payroll to get under the $208 million threshold, to avoid paying a Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) again, and moving Price would go a long way toward reaching that goal.

Price has three years and $96 million remaining on his original, seven-year $217 million pact, which was eclipsed twice this week at the Winter Meetings — first by Stephen Strasburg ($245 million) and, the following day by Gerrit Cole ($324 million).

It seems a given that the Red Sox will have to take back some of the money remaining in order to facilitate a trade of Price. They could also take a significant contract back in return to help make Price's money less burdensome to his new team.

Should the Sox succeed in dealing Price, it would presumably send them back into the market for another starter, since the lefty's absence would leave them with just four established starters. Then again, the Sox could opt to use the concept of the opener, in which a reliever pitches the first inning or two before giving way to a younger starter who is being brought along slowly.