Perez not giving up on return trip to the ‘Show’
Eury Perez is trying to live by that old saying, “Don’t stumble over something behind you.” It is easy to secondguess yourself in the minor leagues, where the cellphones are always out and players have their noses down, searching for who gets called up and why they didn’t.
Perez, 27, has been in the big leagues with three teams and experienced the exhilaration and the despair of the call. Last week, while hitting .336 for the Indianapolis Indians, he got moved. It was a lateral trade to the Miami Marlins for cash, a sign the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t view him as a prospect anymore. The Marlins assigned him to their AAA affiliate, the New Orleans Baby Cakes.
“Do not look at the tweets, do not look at the phone, enjoy the game,” Perez said. “I tell my guys one day you could be the next superstar. Look forward. Don’t worry so much.”
The Indians were 2-6 between July 26-Aug. 3 when Perez was out of the lineup with a bruised left knee, and Indianapolis scored 16 runs in those eight games.
“I have good numbers,” Perez said. “I am playing well.”
And then he shrugged. He does not look for explanations from the organization after every game. Perez, a Dominican and once a top Washington Nationals prospect, has been in professional baseball since 2007 and said he has watched players on the emotional roller coaster. They can’t get off.
“One guy worry so much he could not enjoy the game,” Perez said.
Perez, an outfielder, this season has shown flashes of the skill that got him to the big leagues in 2012 and 2013 with Washington, 2014 with the New York Yankees and 2015 with the Atlanta Braves, but there has been no hint of a call-up.
Perez, who has 142 at bats in the big leagues with a .254 average, insists he has improved and keeps digging.
“You have to look ahead, don’t worry so much about things you can’t control in this game,” Perez said. “Everybody want to play in the ‘Show.’ It’s not happening, so I need to focus every day to work. I don’t have control to play Double-A, play Triple-A, play in the ‘Show.’ Keep playing.”
Perez had one stretch for Indianapolis in which he had a stolen base in seven consecutive games, including four in one. He had another stretch (June 15 to June 25) in which he had 11 hits in 28 at bats and the Indians won eight out of 12.
Perez, who bats and throws right-handed, has had a four-hit game and two three-hit games. He also had a stretch with three hits in 15 at bats in May when his average plummeted to .244.
“I think it was 2015 when I just say to myself ‘Enjoy the game.’ Before that season I think too much about playing in the ‘Show,’ ” Perez said. “I tell the younger guys, ‘Don’t think about the tweet about who going, who not going.’ Guys are looking for the news all the time.”
Perez’s game is speed, and that might be one reason he is being left behind. He has 22 stolen bases in 27 attempts this season (two caught stealing, three by pickoff ) and one home run.
His career minor league onbase-plus-slugging percentage is .741, though it was .822 this season. He had 25 homers in nearly 3,200 career at-bats.
“Maybe teams just looking for the power,” said Perez, who is 6-0, 190 pounds. “Every team has their need. Sometimes they need one left-handed pitcher. Sometimes they need speed, sometimes power or maybe position player that plays infield and outfield.
“They are looking for that one piece for the ‘Show’ to help them win. I’m positive that I can make it back to the ‘Show.’ Like I say, I have learned that it is a crazy game, this baseball.”
The trade was motivation for me. After the trade, I thought about it and realized maybe I have to work harder.” — White Sox outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez in the Chi
cago Sun-Times on Aug. 5. He was the No. 1 prospect for the Cubs before being traded to the Sox on July 13. Jimenez was hitting .354 in his first 22 games with high Class A Winston-Salem (N.C.).