Pittsburgh Pirates News: Former Pitcher Set to Retire After 2022

Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Óliver Pérez plans to retire after the 2022 season. He is currently the longest active former Pirate player.

Last week, left-handed relief pitcher Óliver Pérez stated that he will retire after the 2022 season. He plans on playing in the Mexican League next year but is hanging up the spikes after playing the last 23 years of his life in professional baseball. His retirement means the end to the longest active former Pittsburgh Pirates player.

Pérez was initially a prospect in the Padre system. Signed out of Mexico as a 17-year-old in 1999, the Padres traded Pérez along with Jason Bay and Cory Stewart to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Brian Giles.

Pérez made his Pittsburgh Pirates debut nearly ten years ago on August 30th, 2003. The only active players who appeared in the 2003 season are Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, Edwin Jackson, Jose Bautista (if you want to count his appearance in the Olympics), Edgar Gonzalez, and the forever immortal Bartolo Colon. However, the only ones to appear with an MLB affiliated team or the major league club within the past three seasons are Cabrera and Pujols.

Pérez did have one quality season as a starting pitcher for the Bucs. In 2004, the southpaw fired 196 innings, posting a 2.98 ERA, 3.45 FIP, and 1.15 WHIP. Perez led the league in K/9 rate (11.0) and was second to Randy Johnson and Johan Santana in strikeout rate (29.7%). Though he did have a 10.1% walk rate and 1.01 HR/9, Perez had a 143 ERA+, 69 ERA-, and 71 FIP-.

Pérez never came close to this peak again in his career. He did have a solid season in 2007 as a member of the New York Mets starting rotation, though it was far from the numbers he had in 2004. After three seasons from 2008 through 2010, where he had an ERA approaching 7.00 in two of the three campaigns, Pérez didn’t appear in the majors in 2011. He spent the entire year with the Washington Nationals Triple-A affiliate.

However, he revitalized his career in 2012 as a reliever. His last 490 appearances have come out of the bullpen, where he has had a 3.42 ERA, 3.26 FIP, and 1.26 WHIP. Despite never being a dominant presence, he’s been a consistent stalwart southpaw for many teams. He’s pitched with the Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks, Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, and Cleveland Indians.

Pérez is going into his age-40 season, making him one of the oldest active players in professional baseball. John Lackey, Josh Beckett, Jake Peavy, Mark Ellis, Carl Crawford, Joaquin Benoit, and Carlos Zambrano all had long and successful MLB careers while Perez has played. While he wasn’t as dominant as some of those names, he’s outlasted every single one of them. Here’s to Perez in hoping he has a good send-off in 2022.