The 32-year-old Puerto Rican professional baseball catcher and the Pittsburgh Pirateshave agreed to a one-year contract, according to ESPN sources.
The deal, which is contingent upon Perez passing a physical, is worth $5 million, according to confirmed multiple reports.
Pérez won Gold Gloves in 2019 and 2020 with Cleveland Guardians but struggled at the plate throughout his career and hit just .149 with seven home runs and 17 RBI in 44 games in 2021. The Guardians declined his $7 million option for 2022.
Pérez takes over for Jacob Stallings, a Gold Glove winner in 2021 who was traded to the Miami Marlins on Monday for reliever Zach Thompsonand a pair of prospects.
Pérez is a year older and considerably more expensive than Stallings, but the Pirates were able to flip Stallings – who is under team control through 2024 – for minor leaguers, the main focus of general manager Ben Cherington‘s franchise-wide reboot.
The trade left Pittsburgh, temporarily at least, without a catcher on the major league roster after Michael Pérez was outrighted to Triple-A Indianapolis last week.
Roberto Pérez will take over as the primary receiver for a pitching staff in flux. The Pirates used 17 different starters in 2021 and the rotation is a bit of a jumble, though Pittsburgh did sign veteran left-handed pitcher José Quintana on Monday to a one-year deal worth $2 million.
In one swing, the 28-year-old Dominican professional baseball third baseman batted the Cleveland Indians into the playoffs and strengthened his case for the American League MVP award.
Ramirez hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning, giving Cleveland a 5-3 win over the Chicago White Soxthat clinched a postseason berth Tuesday night.
Ramirez’s drive to right off Jose Ruiz scored Cesar Hernandez and Francisco Lindor, leading to a wild celebration at home plate as the Indians reached the postseason for the fourth time in five years.
“Once I hit it, I knew it was a home run because I got it right on the barrel,” said Ramirez, who is hitting .500 (14 of 28) with six homers and 16 RBIs in his last seven games. “There was a lot less champagne than usual, but it was still a good celebration.”
Lindor had pulled Cleveland within one on a two-out double that plated Roberto Perez, who began the inning on second base. After Matt Foster (5-1) walked Hernandez, Ruiz entered and gave up the game-ending drive.
AL Central-leading Chicago lost for the fourth time in five games, creating a logjam at the top of the division.
The Minnesota Twins is in second and Cleveland is just three games back.
The 28-year-old Puerto Rican and Cuban American Major League Baseball player has extended his streak of winning a Gold Glove Award in every season of his career on Sunday, when the Colorado Rockies star earned the award for National Leaguet hird basemen for the seventh consecutive year.
Arenado has won the award each year since he debuted in 2013. With this year’s win, he moved into sole possession of fourth place for the most Gold Glovesamong third basemen and just one behind Scott Rolenfor third place all time.
Only Baltimore Orioles legend Brooks Robinson, who won 16 Gold Gloves in a row from 1960 to ’75, and Mike Schmidt, who won 10, have more than Arenado. Robinson has the most Gold Gloves among all position players, but at just 28 years old, Arenado has a chance to catch him.
Kansas City Royals veteran Alex Gordon also won his seventh career Gold Glove, claiming the ALleft fielder award for the third straight year to move into a tie for 14th-most among outfielders.
2019 Gold Glove Winners
POS.
AL
NL
C
Roberto Perez, Indians
J.T. Realmuto, Phillies
1B
Matt Olson, Athletics
Anthony Rizzo, Cubs
2B
Yolmer Sanchez, White Sox
Kolten Wong, Cardinals
SS
Francisco Lindor, Indians
Nick Ahmed, Diamondbacks
3B
Matt Chapman, Athletics
Nolan Arenado, Rockies
LF
Alex Gordon, Royals
David Peralta, Diamondbacks
CF
Kevin Kiermaier, Rays
Lorenzo Cain, Brewers
RF
Mookie Betts, Red Sox
Cody Bellinger, Dodgers
P
Mike Leake, Mariners
Zack Greinke, Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks had four Gold Glove winners on their team this season, including both pitchers, Mike Leake and Zack Greinke, though the two never played with each other. Leake won the American League pitcher’s award for his time with the Seattle Mariners before Arizona acquired him at the trade deadline on July 31, the day the Diamondbacks dealt Greinke to the Houston Astros.
Shortstop Nick Ahmed, who won his second straight Gold Glove, and left fielder David Peraltawere the other Diamondbacks honored Sunday. Peralta was one of three National League outfielders who won their first Gold Gloves, joining the Milwaukee Brewers‘ Lorenzo Cain and the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Cody Bellinger.
The Oakland Athletics had a pair of winners, as first baseman Matt Olsonand third baseman Matt Chapman both won for the second straight season. The Cleveland Indians had two Gold Glovers in shortstop Francisco Lindor, who won the second of his career, and catcher Roberto Perez, a first-time winner.
The second baseman awards went to the Chicago White Sox‘s Yolmer Sanchez and the St. Louis Cardinals‘ Kolten Wong, who both won for the first time.
Also in the American League, Boston Red Soxright fielder Mookie Betts won for the fourth straight season, and Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier won his third career Gold Glove after a two-year absence.
In the National League, Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo won his third career Gold Glove and second in a row, while catcher J.T. Realmuto earned his first award in his first season with the Philadelphia Philliesafter a preseason trade from the Marlins.
Managers and up to six coaches per team vote for the awards in their league and cannot choose their own players. For the first time, the defensive index from the Society for American Baseball Research was used, and it comprised about 25% of the vote, with the managers and coaches ballots the rest.
The 28-year-old Puerto Rican catcher and the Cleveland Indians have agreed to a $9 million, four-year contract that includes club options for 2021 and 2022.
After spending nearly three months on the disabled list following thumb surgery, Perez became a key contributor last season during the Indians’ postseason run. With Yan Gomeson the DL, Perez started all 15 games in the postseason. He hit two home runs in Game 1 of the World Series.
The deal announced Sunday includes a $500,000 signing bonus and salaries of $550,000 this season, $1.5 million next year, $2.5 million in 2018 and $3.5 million in 2019 and a $450,000 option buyout. It replaces a one-year contract agreed to last month that called for a salary of $542,300 in the major leagues. Perez would have been eligible for salary arbitration after this season.
Perez batted only .183 in 61 games, but he threw out 46 percent of potential base stealers and the Indians went 33-20 when he started.
He broke his right thumb and sustained ligament damage on a tag play last April and came off the DL prematurely when Gomes injured his shoulder in July.
Perez was selected by the Indians in the 33rd round of the 2008 amateur draft. He played for Puerto Rico in this year’s World Baseball Classic.
President Obama has presented Roberto Perez with the Presidential Citizens Medal—the nation’s second-highest decoration awarded to civilians—for his efforts to combat illiteracy throughout the world.
The Cuban-born Perez serves as president of Alfalit, a non-profit organization with 6,000 volunteers committed to fighting illiteracy from Africa to South America. Because of his efforts, about seven million people in 22 countries in the Americas, Africa and Europe have learned to read and write in the organization’s 50-year history.
The former Miami-Dade County social worker arrived in the United States from Cuba at the age of 17, he quickly learned how difficult it was to get by without knowing how to read and write English. For a long time, he was misled into accepting lower wages. When he injured his finger while working in a factory, Perez was afraid he’d never be able to work again.
Since then, he’s dedicated his life to learning and teaching. First he educated himself; then he starting helping others “come out of the shadows” of ignorance.
“For a person who doesn’t know how to read or write it’s as if he’s blind,” says the 68-year-old ordained Methodist pastor who has counseled prison inmates and alcoholics. “Many people are in the shadows for that reason…and our objective is to change… their lives (so that) they aren’t mistreated because they’re considered to be ignorant”.
Perez is one of 13 recipients who received this year’s medal at a special White House ceremony today.
“They come from different backgrounds” and have “devoted themselves to different causes,” Obama said. “They are united by the choice that they’ve made. They could have made an excuse to do nothing; instead they chose to help.”
The Presidential Citizens Medal was established in 1969 to recognize Americans who have performed exemplary service that has had a lasting effect on others, their community, the nation or the world.
The deal, which is contingent upon Perez passing a physical, is worth $5 million, according to confirmed multiple reports.
