Player Data: Age: 27 (4/30/1994), B/T: R/R
Primary Stats: 64 G, 154 PA, .204 BA, .266 OBP, .380 SLG, .646 OPS, 29 H, 6 HR, 20 RBI, 9 BB, 26 SO
Advanced Stats: 79 wRC+, 16.9% K%, 5.8% BB%, .209 BABIP, .269 xwOBA, 0.0 fWAR, 0.2 bWAR
2021 Salary: $575,000
Grade: D+
2021 Review
On November 4, the Mets signed José Peraza to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. Peraza had established himself with the Reds as a versatile defender who could hit for average and steal bases. After starting his career with playing seven games for the Dodgers in 2015, he became a steady presence in the Reds’ lineup. He hit .324, .259 and .288 from 2016-2018 and stole over 20 bases each season. Peraza had a down year in 2019, and struggled even more with the Red Sox in the 2020 COVID season before joining the Mets for the 2021 season.
After going back and forth between the Mets’ alternate training site and the big league club throughout April, Peraza became a mainstay on the Mets’ roster on April 30. He made his Mets debut in a pinch hitting appearance on May 2, and made his first start on May 5.
Peraza got plenty of playing time in May, but he struggled to maintain his hot start. He hit .313 in the first two weeks of May in a limited role, but after a Jeff McNeil hamstring strain led to an increase in playing time for Peraza, he finished the month with a triple slash line of .246/.295/.404 over 57 at bats.
June was not much better for the Venezuelan middle infielder. His triple slash line for the month was just .148/.220/.370 over 54 at bats. After setting new career highs in K% in 2019 and 2020, Peraza struck out in just over 22% of his at-bats in the month.
It looked like things were finally turning around for Peraza to start July. He started the month with a strong series at Yankee Stadium. After going 2-4 in the series opener, he hit a pinch-hit go-ahead two-run double in the top of the seventh in the first game of the Fourth of July doubleheader.
The signature moment of Peraza’s season came just three days later. Trailing by one run against the Milwaukee Brewers in the bottom of the seventh of the first game of a doubleheader, Peraza hit a pinch-hit game-tying home run off of Brewers’ closer Josh Hader. It was the only save Hader blew in 2021, and the Mets went on to win the game in the eighth.
The good times ended there for Peraza. On July 19, he came into the game in the seventh inning of an eleven inning slugfest in Cincinnati and broke his right middle finger fielding a ground ball. He would be placed on the injured list and missed nearly two months.
On September 15, the Mets activated Peraza from the injured list. He would only get 15 more at-bats in 2021, and he hit just three singles in that time. In the final game of the season in Atlanta, he recorded his first stolen base of the season.
Not much went right for Peraza in 2021. Despite an uptick in power, Peraza had career-low numbers in many other aspects of the game. Peraza has always been known for being a player that can get his bat on the ball and run well. For the third consecutive year, he set a career high in K%, and he was a non-factor on the base path until the last game of the season.
The biggest positive for Peraza in 2021 was his timely hitting. Despite not hitting much in 2021 overall, Peraza was able to come through in multiple big spots. He had a 224 wRC+ with four extra-base hits and nine RBI 19 high-leverage plate appearances, and five of his six home runs either tied the game or gave the Mets the lead. A late-game go-ahead hit is always big, but doing it in the Bronx was a great way to endear himself to Mets fans. The game-tying homer off of Hader was also one of the Mets most memorable wins of the season due to how improbable the moment was. In a year that was essentially lost for him, he was able to cash in a couple of signature moments.
2022 Outlook
On October 29, Peraza elected free agency. After being optioned to Triple-A, he was able to decline the assignment because he had accrued five years of service time in the Majors. While his future is uncertain, he is certainly young enough to warrant being given another shot to show he can still be a productive Major Leaguer. Despite some worrisome trends, his late game heroics in 2021 combined with being just 28-years-old in 2022 will most likely have teams hoping they can get the Reds’ version of Peraza out of him.
