Nats say goodbye to Perez

Can someone please remind Odalis Perez that he’s Odalis Perez. The left handed pitcher was released by the Washington Nationals on Monday for failing to show up to their spring training camp. Perez was reportedly upset with the minor league contract, worth $850,000 if he made the major league roster that he signed on February 5th. He said he would not show up to camp until his contract was renegotiated. After not returning messages left for him by Nationals GM Jim Bowden and manager Manny Acta the decision was made to release the disgruntled pitcher.

This is an extremely odd move by Odalis Perez. The first question of course is why did he even sign the contract? It’s possible that he wasn’t 100% pleased that all he got was a minor league deal but he still agreed to the contract. In ‘08 the lefty made 30 starts posting a 4.34 ERA, he did however allow 182 hits in only 159.2 IP. Regardless, pitchers are always in demand especially left handed pitchers. I’m sure he had a few teams inquiring about his services. Of course this is pure speculation but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had at least one major league contract offer on the table, yet he choose the Nationals offer. Secondly, Perez’s holdout most likely has put him in an even worse position than he perceived he was in with the Nationals. With spring training games starting on Wednesday does Perez honestly believe he’ll find a better deal for himself now? I could envision a team offering him slightly more money but I would find it hard to believe that a team would be willingly to give Perez a guaranteed roster spot at this point in the spring.

Barring a purely awful spring he was pretty much assured of making the Nationals roster regardless of his contract. The smart move for him would have been to stay with the Nats, if he remained mildly productive he could of drummed up some trade interest and might have been out of Washington by August 1st. He might think he got what he wanted with his release. He’s just overlooking the fact he’s a marginal pitcher who now has a bad reputation. I think I have a better shot at getting a Major League contract than he does this spring.

-Robb Lennahan