The Red Sox have released catcher Roberto Perez, as noted by Chris Hatfield of SoxProspects.com. Perez signed a minor league deal with the club back in December but has spent the entire regular season on the injured list in the minors.
A veteran of ten big league seasons, Perez is a two-time Gold Glove award winner who has routinely been considered one of the best defensive catchers in the sport throughout his career. Unfortunately, the 35-year-old has struggled badly with injury woes in recent years after being a regular presence in the Cleveland lineup during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. The veteran was limited to just 44 games in 2021 by a fractured finger and a shoulder strain, a reality that allowed Austin Hedges to jump the veteran on Cleveland’s depth chart.
Perez became a free agent for the first time after the 2021 season, but his injury woes have only gotten worse since then. He found a big league deal with the Pirates headed into 2022 but ultimately appeared in just 21 games before hamstring problems ended his season in early May. The following winter Perez latched on with the Giants on a non-roster pact and earned a spot on the club’s staff with a strong Spring Training. Unfortunately, the veteran made it just five games into the regular season before undergoing season-ending surgery to repair the rotator cuff in his right shoulder. Between those injuries and now the undisclosed issue that has plagued Perez this year, the 35-year-old has stepped up to the plate in official games just 86 times since the end of the 2021 season.
For a veteran catcher in his mid-thirties, the lengthy string of injuries is a concerning one, although it’s worth noting that his limited regular season and spring training appearances have generally shown him to still be a solid defensive catcher when healthy. On the other hand, he’s been nothing short of atrocious at the plate following a roughly league average 2019 season, slashing just .169/.268/.288 with a wRC+ of 58 in 357 plate appearances at the big league level since then.
Even so, it would hardly be a shock for a catching-needy club to take a look at Perez on a minor league deal if he can get healthy enough to contribute in the second half, given the importance of catching depth and the veteran’s sterling defensive reputation. As for Boston, the club remains deep in catching depth behind their primary tandem of Connor Wong and Reese McGuire even after parting ways with Perez; Tyler Heineman is on the 40-man roster as an optionable depth piece, while Mark Kolozsvary provides additional, non-roster depth with big league experience at the Triple-A level.