Mets Will Give Oliver Perez One More Chance

Oliver Perez needs to start knocking down that 9.31 ERA, or else the Mets might be finding him a new line of work in the bullpen.

NEW YORK -- Managing Oliver Perez is like trying to climb a sheer, slippery rock. There aren't too many places where you can get a real good grip, so when you find out, you grip it real, real tight.

This is where Mets manager Jerry Manuel finds himself. At a loss to explain why Perez's results so often struggle to match up with his ability, Manuel said this afternoon that he'll start the struggling left-hander Saturday in Philadelphia against the World Series champion Phillies because he thinks this is the kind of game in which Perez will actually pitch well.
"We want to give him a chance and see what he can do in this one particular start, because he has had some success against that team and in that ballpark," Manuel said. "I'm looking at this Philadelphia outing as a big outing for him. I'm hoping to find something."

Perez was 1-0 with an 0.35 ERA in four starts against the Phillies in 2008, allowing just one run in 26 innings. Lifetime, he has a 3.15 ERA in 12 starts against the Phillies and a 1.42 ERA in four career starts at Citizens Bank Park.

"Does he continue to get, to a degree, more patience?" Manuel said. "Only because of those factors."

If this technique sounds familiar, that's because this same manager has used it before with this same pitcher, and not long ago. Perez was slumping badly last June, and the Mets were considering a move to the bullpen or the minors but decided to give Perez one more start before doing anything because his next start was against the Yankees. This is what Manuel said about Perez on June 26, 2008, in The Star-Ledger:

"Oliver's a funny guy. You know, looking back at Oliver Perez, it appears as though the bigger the game, the better the performance. And you can't have any bigger game than the Yankees on a Sunday afternoon at Shea Stadium. So (after) that would be a very good time for us to make a decision, one way or the other."

Perez did beat the Yankees three days later, allowing one run on three hits, no walks and eight strikeouts in seven innings. That actually kicked off a 13-start stretch in which he went 10-3 with a 2.44 ERA. It's probably that very stretch (along with the Braves' decision to offer a fourth year to Derek Lowe) that earned Perez the three-year, $36 million contract the Mets gave him over the winter.

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Now, with his ERA at a teetering 9.31 after four starts so far this year, Perez faces another such moment of truth. The Mets can only hope he responds the way he did at a similar juncture last year. If he doesn't ... they honestly don't know what they'll do. They can't send him to the minors without his permission. It's tough to imagine he'd help much out of the bullpen, walking a batter an inning. And truly, they don't have anybody in the minors clamoring to take his place.

Right now, all the Mets have for Perez is hope. And if that doesn't pan out, it's going to be a rough year.

A rough three years, actually.