The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Wednesday afternoon that catcher Roberto Perez will undergo surgery on his hamstring injury and he will miss the remainder of the season. The 33-year-old Perez played 21 games for the Pirates after signing a $5M one-year deal. He hit .233/.333/.367 in 69 plate appearances, while posting 0.5 dWAR according to Baseball-Reference. He has been limited to 97 games over the last three seasons due to four separate trips to the injured list.
The Pirates have Miguel Perez as their starter now. He was the backup last year to Jacob Stallings. They also have Tyler Heineman, who they just picked up off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays. For now, those two will handle the catching duties.
There are more injury updates coming up according to reporters, but they also announced that Blake Cederlind has been shutdown 4-6 weeks after getting a PRP injection.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Learned from Mackey report, KeBryan has been dealing with “lower body issue”; Kranick having recurring forearm/elbow soreness; Mlodzinski with right shoulder inflammation; Priester with an oblique; Yajure with a right hip/lower back soreness; Cederlind shut down for 4- 6 weeks; Lonnie White with elbow soreness and a hammy; Henry Davis wrist being looked at in Pittsburgh;
Not a mention about Greg Allen……….cause he’s fully f–ing healed! Yes I’ll continue to pound the table for him!
Promote Delay and Binns…they cannot be worse than the two catchers on the roster now.
Jason Delay for sure – .994 Fielding %age, 56% CS. I know it does not mean much to this FO, but he was drafted and developed within the Pirates org and has history and knowledge of every pitcher on the team.
Man, if ever there were a season you wanted to shake the etch-a-sketch on…
Though we still have plenty to look forward to:
* late May: Newman’s return (who will be optioned (or DFA’d??))
* late May: Roansy’s return (same as above)
* May 30: a pitcher gets booted from the 26-man; a hitter is called up. Please don’t let it be Tucker.
* early June: Allen comes off the 60 day IL and – YAY!!! – someone else gets booted from the 40-man!
* June XX: Cruz is recalled
* July 17: Draft
* August 2: Quintana is traded for a package that is way less impressive than we were hoping for.
* August 3: Tsutsugo and Hembree are DFA’d when, remarkably, no one wants to trade for them.
* August 4: Two guys at Indy we pretty much forgot about added to the 40-man and called up.
* August XX: Priester scheduled for first rehab start at Bradenton
Availability is also part of talent evaluations, Ben
BC has actually done a great job re-stocking the bare shelves of catchers in the minors, that was left behind by NH. But yeah, the MLB team continues to be an after thought it seems.
So…Davis around Labor Day?
Fortunately, unlike previous seasons, Catcher Apocalypse Part III is not going to torpedo this team as there are already competing apocalypses at 1B, 2B, the back half of the rotation and the bullpen.
I’ve never understood why major sports organisations (MLB, nfl, nhl, nba) all treat soft tissue injuries, especially hamstring injuries the way they do.
With traditional treatments, hamstring injuries might be the worst injuries, as they reinjure very easily. However, there is a treatment that not only fixes the problem, it helps from reinjuring as well. The treatment is Acupuncture.
I still play about 60 games per summer, now at age 38, in a couple wood bat leagues in the Pittsburgh area. Last year i pulled my hamstring really bad, could barely walk, had 2 Acupuncture treatments & was back on the field 6 days later playing at 90%. The same thing happened on my other leg 2 years prior & had the same outcome. Also pointed a teammate with a hamstring injury to do the same, & he healed right up (so it’s not just a biased opinion). Of course, like any type of treatment, it’s success depends on the skills/knowledge of the physician, & yes i know there’s different levels of a hamstring pull.
My point is that professional teams always push their players to surgery as a way to “fix” the injury, as it’s considered their safest option with their asset, but I’m willing to bet that most of these guys with muscle injuries could be back on the field in weeks if the teams would give them access to skilled Acupuncture practitioners rather than months to a year by pushing them to surgery.
I’d recommend that any of the writer’s on the site that have communications with players having muscle related pulls/injuries to mention Acupuncture as an option, though they’d probably have to pay for the treatment on their own, outside of the team’s knowledge.
These down votes make me wonder if I can get enough Down Votes to be demoted from Prospect status to Minor League Free Agent, & then enough more, become a Independent ball player, to even more, finally a Old Never was Athlete status lol.
Actually, can i just skip to that title Tim & John?
I was going to upvote this cause I think it’s funny, but I’m going to downvote to help the cause lol
Thank you! haha
As a scientist, your N = 1 conclusions are offensive and dangerous. I’m glad your hamstring feels better but modern medicine for high level athletes isn’t informed by one off experiences from old never was athletes
lol ur funny
Paying for a treatment outside of the team’s knowledge is probably about the last thing a player wants to do. That would be a nightmare if anything went wrong.
Agree, but players want to play, not spend months-year rehabbing. Acupuncture is a way to stimulate & amplify the body’s healing properties, it’s not an invasive procedure that’s cutting & pasting muscles like a surgery, where something can go wrong.
Just look at the Eichel situation with the Sabres, and the debacle that centered around that, just because he wanted to try a different (IIRC, even proven medically) procedure.
Interesting, will look at, i don’t follow hockey much, so i didn’t hear about this.
Not to mention a contractual violation.
Interesting point, are you sure there’s wording in the contracts that prevents players from having their own choice on treatment? While I’m aware that in Worker’s Comp world, Employer’s will have a treatment panel, where an employee must go to certain doctor’s for an initial assessment, the employee has the ultimate decision to choose their care.
For example, I bet there’s players that go to chiropractors in their hometowns during the offseason. I’ve never heard of a team trying to make that an issue.
I’ve heard it referenced before. Probably different statutes apply to professional athletes. In regular Workers Comp, employees can be assigned “light-duty” or other tasks. In sports, it’s all or mothing…..play at a high level or lose your job. The NFL team f/k/a the Redskins have had at least 3 players complain about mis-handling of their injuries (Sua Cravens, Trent Williams, RG3). It seems team doctors control the medical aspect. Professional teams are likely self-insured, so there may not even be an insurance company case manager involved.
FWIW, I agree 100% on your takes about acupuncture. You often hear teams sending players to get a second or third opinion, so I think players can certainly ask for alternative opinions, but are subject to team approval.
Great message. I’m guessing you have experience in management or accounting.
Would be funny if they assigned Light Duty work to those injured. Call 1-800-Buy-Bucs to talk to Roberto Perez & hear him try to sell you a season package! haha
Unless I missed it, Perez was never officially placed on the long term DL?? Doing so would open a spot on the 40 man. Seems like a pretty clear opportunity to get Cal Mitchell to Pittsburgh…
He was placed on the 60-day when they added Alldred
It looks like Roberto is still on 10 day IL, and Beau Sulser was the corresponding DFA
Looks like he was moved to 60IL the week before last.
https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/pirates-roberto-perez-moves-to-60-day-il/
Weird that, like MWT said, the Pirates 40 man on their team page still has him listed as 10 day, and this transaction log also only mentions 10 day. I wouldn’t put it past the MLB to have glitches though.
https://www.mlb.com/pirates/roster/transactions
Ah, my apologies! They never updated his status on the transaction log on the Pirates website, he’s still listen as being on the 10-day DL.
I stand corrected, with a 40-man roster stuffed to the brim with talent we may never see Mitchell in Pittsburgh
But then they’d take a spot away from an undeserving vet on his 8th chance
Though no one could’ve predicted him tearing his hamstring, going into this season and banking on Perez without a contingency plan was idiotic. Cue the merry-go-round of waiver wire pickups we have to suffer through for the remainder of the season…
give it to Bins
Nuts! Now he’ll have to drive a newspaper motor route for Nickles to get his $$$ worth.
really sucks for perez. he was showing to be a pretty solid catcher.
as for the pirates….well i guess it’s a good thing they aren’t really trying to win
Sucks for him foremost, but also sucks for us. Was playing decent, and was the best option for the pitching staff. Now we’ll be lucky if we’ll see a catcher at any point that can hit even the century mark in batting average.
I was just starting to think he wasn’t a bad replacement for Stallings and might be good to bring back in 2023.
He still might be, and his price just went down due to hammy…..a reduction in pay, music to BN’s pocketbook.
I was told on another tread that good hitting catchers grow on trees, any idea where is that tree.
They do! There’s thousands of them. That’s why we can afford to go with catchers who hit .140. When the time is right, we’ll just snatch up one of those good-hitting catchers from the lawn.
Look on the bright side, Nick Gonzales has started to hit and will help take our minds even further from having to think about the MLB club. Although, originally I wasn’t thinking much on the Tank Davis injury, but the recent update has me a little more worried.
#SabolSZN
Weird to say, Nick is 33 points above the league average OPS, and you probably should adjust upward a tad for the home park.
I am almost tempted to suggest that they bring up Carter Bins at this point. At least he’s not in the spiraling-down part of his career yet.
I’d give Delay a shot. He’s kind of a Pirate lifer at this stage, which is worth a few bonus points. The glove is good. The bay, not so much, but he has occasional outbursts.
Totally forgot about him. Excellent defensive catcher with highly questionable hitting skills – would fit right in.
Excellent defense and highly questionable hitting would be upgrades on both sides. We seem to be content with average defense and doubtful hitting.
I’d call up Taylor Davis. They are going to lose regardless of which catcher they call up (assuming they need to at some point), so might as well bring up someone entertaining. I just hope they don’t waste a potential asset to bring someone in who is at best a marginal upgrade. I could see a mid-grade prospect traded for a veteran backup type who won’t be around next year. Would be completely useless in a year that they aren’t competing for a playoff spot.
He does stare into the camera very well
Exactly. Anything to take away from the play on the field. His minor league staring video is amazing
It’s great. “Taylor Davis can’t take his eyes off you”
Remember when his injury was announced as discomfort? Those were fun times.
Hit us with the NHL injury update from the start. I’m beginning to really, really, dislike the Travis Williams hire. I’m beginning to believe he’s had a much more nefarious impact behind the scenes than we’ve given him credit for.
Didn’t he do hockey at one point? Surprised they didn’t just say it was a lower body injury.
Yeah. He came from the Pens org
The kiss of death.