Former MLB pitcher Oliver Pérez to retire after upcoming season
Former Cleveland Guardians and Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Oliver Pérez announced that he will be retiring from baseball after this upcoming season.
¡THE LAST DANCE! ¡Oliver Pérez anuncia que 2022 será su último año en el béisbol profesional! #OliverLastDance🔥⚾ pic.twitter.com/TagRZplv6B
— Toros De Tijuana 🐃 (@TorosDeTijuana) February 18, 2022
Pérez, 40, spent most of the 2021 season in the Mexican League with the Toros De Tijuana after he was released by the Cleveland Indians in May. He spent parts of 19 seasons in the majors from 2002 through 2021.
Oliver Pérez will retire from professional baseball after the 2022 season
Oliver Pérez has played in the majors with the San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks, Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, and Cleveland Guardians.
He started out his career as a starting pitcher with the Padres but the Padres traded him and outfielder Jason Bay to Pittsburgh for outfielder Brian Giles.
Pérez was the Opening Day starter for the Pirates in both 2005 and 2006, was the second of only three Pirates starting pitchers to make back-to-back Opening Day starts since their success in the early 1990s. Francisco Cordova was their Opening Day starter in 1998 and 1999 and Francisco Liriano was their Opening Day starter from 2014 through 2016.
The Pirates traded him to the Mets for Xavier Nady at the trade deadline in 2006.
However, he struggled as a starter with the Padres, Pirates, and Mets through 2010. From 2002 through 2010, he had a career ERA of 4.63 with an ERA+ of 90.
Since 2012 (he didn’t appear in the majors in 2011), he was used exclusively as a reliever for the latter five teams. In 490 games, he had a 3.42 ERA (121 ERA+). He was best with Cleveland as he had a 2.57 ERA (178 ERA+) in 144 appearances. He pitched well for Cleveland in 2021 but they released him in May because, in the entire month of April, they only used him for 3 2/3 innings.
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He joined the Toros De Tijuana and he had an ERA of 2.63 in 21 games. He also played for Tomateros de Culiacan in the Mexican Winter League and he had an ERA of 2.84 in 10 appearances. Pérez was born in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico and he played for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2017, and 2020.