Oliver Perez is hardly the only player to exercise his rights under baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement and refuse an assignment to the minor leagues. Indeed, it was just five years ago that Jason Giambi resisted such a move when the Yankees made such a request.
But Perez’ decision not to go to Buffalo to work on his mechanics, as the Mets suggested following the lefthander’s dreadful May 14 start in the Florida heat five days after a dreadful start in New York’s frigid temperatures, has left the team both little room to maneuver and with a small sample of work with which to evaluate his progress.
But as everyone around this game seems to say on a routine basis, “That’s baseball.”
And as Perez told The Post in the Citi Field clubhouse before last night’s opener of the three-game series against the Phillies: “Baseball in the minors is different.”
No kidding.
So is life.
“If I go to the minors and feel confident there, that doesn’t mean I will feel confident here,” said Perez, lifted from the rotation after seven overall starts in which he went 0-3 with a 5.94 ERA. “I believe the best way for me to improve and get back to starting is to work here where they can see me.
“[Management] gave me some different possibilities and I decided to stay here.”
Perez, of course, is on the second year of a three-year, $36M contract to which the Mets signed him when he became a free agent following two seasons in which he had gone 25-17. Perez led the NL with 34 starts in 2008 while going 10-7 in what would ordinarily be called his walk year, except isn’t that what every season is for him?
Last year though, the first of the contract, Perez was able to make only 14 starts because of knee problems that ended his season on Aug. 23, nine days before he underwent surgery to remove scar tissue from the patella tendon.
“I know Ollie busted his [butt] rehabbing his knee over the winter in Arizona because I was there,” said the Phils’ Nelson Figueroa, a Met the previous two seasons. “If anyone thinks Ollie just sat around counting his money, they’re wrong.”
Perez’ inability to find the plate at an acceptable rate has always been an issue. But in addition to that deficiency, Perez has lost at least 5 mph on his fastball the last couple of years. That’s a puzzle.
It’s a puzzle that has moved to the bullpen, from where Perez has been called on twice since his exile, each time walking the first batter he faced, each time retiring the next hitter. Perez got Mark Teixeira on a warning track fly to straight away center after issuing a pass to Brett Gardner in Friday’s Subway Series opener.
“Ollie is someone we’re trying to find a spot for during the course of a game,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “I’m looking for a situation where we might need an out, or two if he’s facing a couple of lefties and there’s a history.
“I want to see him each outing and evaluate each outing and see how he does [before returning him to the rotation].”
Perez could get his next start as soon as Saturday in Milwaukee, when the Mets are going to need to fill John Maine’s spot in the rotation. Other than ruling out Raul Valdes, Manuel was cryptic when asked to identify the starter.
“I want to do my best here,” Perez said before last night’s 8-0 Mets win over the Phillies. “When I got here in ’06 [from Pittsburgh, where he was 2-10], I was really lost. I wanted to go home and retire.
“This is nothing like that. I just have to keep going. Ask anybody, and dealing with trouble in your professional life is not easy, but you have to deal with things like a grown man.
“Being negative isn’t going to help. I just want to help this team the best I can.”