What Will Become of Ollie?
With the Mets suddenly in the thick of the NL East race with a 26-25 record, they continue to look for an answer to the Oliver Perez situation. Right now, Ollie is languishing in the bullpen after refusing to go to Buffalo to work out his problems in AAA. Neither the Mets nor Team Ollie (population: Scott Boras) wants to see Perez in the bullpen, but he will remain there until someone blinks.
So what can be done?
ESPN’s Adam Rubin is reporting that the Mets still think they can get Perez to accept a minor league assignment. But even if Ollie accepts the assignment, there is no guarantee it would work. Going to AAA might help Ollie by forcing him to focus, but the move could just as easily embarrass him and send his mental state spinning off in another direction, even farther from where he needs to be.
Mike Flam of The New York Times thinks the Mets should take a different path with their troubled southpaw. Rather than demote Ollie, Flam suggests the Mets might be better off releasing Perez. He points out that the Tigers recently got rid of their own troubled southpaw when they designated Dontrelle Willis for assignment.
Bill Price of The Daily News thinks the Mets should consider a Willis-for-Perez swap, basically trading one troubled lefty for another. A change of scenery is a longshot, but it could be the only solution left for either pitcher.
What do you think the Mets should do with Ollie?
I vote for keep trying to send him down. Although secretly the Mets absolutely have to consider cutting him. The other players in the club house believe he is hurting the team. As he continues to be shunned by his teammates, hopefully he will see that he needs to go down, but until then he is just a bane on this team and the players have begun to speak out about it (anonymously for now). At some point you are literally paying a guy to bring down the entire club and anything you pay him would be like paying someone to punch you in the face.
1. You can trade Ollie. not easily but doable. Detroit have eaten $36m in willis, he has barely pitched similar to O-lay. To olay i suspect money (the difference) and possibly a token prospect pushes that deal.
2. Boras has forced the issue. He WANTS Ollie released so he can go west. Ollie is breaking the clubhouse, his release would HELP the clubhouse. Me, i send him where its coldest.
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1. You can trade Ollie. not easily but doable. Detroit have eaten $36m in willis, he has barely pitched similar to O-lay. To olay i suspect money (the difference) and possibly a token prospect pushes that deal.
2. Boras has forced the issue. He WANTS Ollie released so he can go west. Ollie is breaking the clubhouse, his release would HELP the clubhouse. Me, i send him where its coldest.
1. You can trade Ollie. Ala The Angels you pony up cash My suggestion is to trade Ollie for D-train pony up the difference $8M, Or give 1/2 that and a mid tier prospect. Right now there is mutiny and the Mets have NO choice but to DFA/trade Ollie. I Also if I could I'd send him to the coldest place I could.
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I think we know what must be done gentleman, in the most discrete way possible… We must KILL Oliver Perez.
I don't see a trade for Willis as possible, either. Every team knows Perez is shot. Why Detroit would want to take on an even bigger headcase than Dontrelle, with an additional year on his contract to boot, would be beyond me.
So, if Perez is resistant to a AAA stint, and working out a trade is impossible, and releasing him is too costly, than why not try to make the most of what he brings to the table? Lefties are hitting .200 against Perez on the season. They were .200 against him last year. They are .226 against him over his career. I know Ollie tends to walk too many, but the numbers indicate he would make a nice LOOGY and could very well fill that role for the Mets. Let's face it: Feliciano is overworked, and is now seeing added setup and crossover time as Igarashi and Nieve have struggled. Takahashi is now in the rotation and is likely to stay there for quite some time. Valdes is the clear favorite to continue long-relieving, as he's done a knock-up job of it thus far. With so many LHPs on the team transitioning into new roles, why not slide Ollie into the LOOGY role from here on out? He can't be any worse than what he's been in the rotation, and at least in this role he'll only be needed a batter or two per game, 2 or 3 times per week. He'll undoubtedly be the most expensive bullpen specialist in baseball, and could very well be a flop, but why not give it a try? It's certainly a better idea to me than banging your head against the wall continuing to try to banish him to AAA, or just leaving him to rot in the bullpen. If he's on the team, might as well try to get some use out of him. Who knows, maybe the stubborn mule can be made into a working class stead after all.
What can the Mets do? At least they can't say nobody suggested it. A polite declining of the proposal would suffice. = P I know sarcasm doesn't translate well over the net, but common sense travels through all mediums.
And no way man, that's just spite. I don't think anyone wants to deliberately destroy whatever's left of his career because we hate the fact that he sucks. I'm sure he doesn't like it that he sucks. He's a douche cuz he should volunteer to go to the minors. Boras won't let him because his pride is going to take a hit.
I wonder if Perez has been to the minors while he was with the Mets? I thought he might have been sent down for a week sometime….
The only way that changes is if they sneak to say 5-6 games over at the break.
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