Kansas City Royals admit another bullpen mistake with Wily Peralta

The Kansas City Royals have admitted to making another mistake in their bullpen construction this offseason, as they have released Wily Peralta.

Last season, Wily Peralta emerged as the surprise closer of the Kansas City Royals in the second half of the season. The former starter performed relatively well in his new bullpen role, and was actually perfect in his 14 save opportunities. Although the underlying statistics indicated that Peralta was fortunate to have that much success, the Royals brought him back to serve a late inning role in the bullpen once more.

This season, Peralta struggled, regression having caught up with him. On Friday, the Royals designated their former closer for assignment, and on Monday, they requested release waivers, giving the team 48 hours to find another team for his services before he is released outright.

In 2018, Peralta performed well from a raw numbers standpoint. He had a 3.67 ERA and 35 strikeouts over his 34.1 innings, along with those aforementioned 14 saves. However, there were signs that his performance was an aberration, as Peralta posted a 4.73 FIP, a truer indication as to his actual performance.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

This year, that luck has run out. Peralta had posted a 5.80 ERA and a 1.587 WHiP over his 40.1 innings. His strikeouts had declined to a 5.4 K/9 rate, while he had allowed seven homers. Equally concerning, Peralta’s fastball velocity had dropped to 94.4 MPH, nearly a two MPH decrease from last season.

While Peralta struggled this season, the final straw likely came in his outing on July 19. Not only did he allow three runs in his inning of work, but he also had words with rookie catcher Meibrys Viloria on several occasions, while repetitively stepping off the mound during his outing.

Although the Royals are saying that his outburst had nothing to do with his being designated for assignment, and now subsequent release, the timing makes that difficult to believe. Kansas City may be struggling to win, but that type of attitude is not needed on a young team. Peralta wrote his own ticket out of town on Thursday with his antics.

Peralta is also yet another strike against the Royals bullpen plans this offseason. The decision to keep him on board turned out to be a failure, much like their signing of Brad Boxberger. That offseason spent looking for bargains has proven to be a disaster, with Peralta just another mistake.

Wily Peralta has been placed on release waivers by the Kansas City Royals. While bringing him back was a mistake, he wrote his own ticket out of town with his actions.