by Jack Hendon
Mike Puma of the New York Post is the first to report that the New York Mets intend to interview former big-leaguer Eduardo Perez for the vacant manager position.
Perez, 50, played first base and the corners of the outfield from 1993 to 2006 before retiring and joining ESPN/ESPN Deportes as an analyst both on-field and in-studio. He has been working with the network intermittently across the past 13 years, serving on the panels of both Monday Night Baseball and Béisbol Esta Noche. He also worked the booth alongside Jason Benetti and Mike Petriello in the televised “Nerdcast” – a Statcast/analytics-focused broadcast – of the National League Wild Card game last October.
Though he lacks experience managing at the major-league level, he has managed Puerto Rican Baseball League teams on two separate occasions: once from 2008-2009 with the Leones de Ponce, and later in the winter of 2014 with the Santurce Crabbers. He has one Manager of the Year award and two league championships to his name, and even managed the Colombian national team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
The son of longtime Cincinnati Reds great and Hall of Famer Tony Perez, Eduardo has also served as a hitting coach for the Miami Marlins (2011-2012) and worked beneath Bo Porter as a bench coach with the 2013 Houston Astros.
He joins Joe Girardi, Carlos Beltran, Luis Rojas, Mike Bell, and Derek Shelton as the sixth known candidate on the Mets’ list. It remains unknown when Perez’s interview is scheduled, though we will keep you updated as more details come in regarding his standing in the race.
