Roberto Perez

Perez finished up his eight-year career in Cleveland last season, and he had a 56 wRC+ in 44 games while missing significant time with multiple injuries. The Pirates shipped out Jacob Stallings, their starting catcher in 2021, to the Marlins this offseason, and Perez is the clear favorite to start behind the plate after inking a one-year deal. The 33-year-old delivered his best campaign in 2019 with 24 homers and a .773 OPS in 119 games, but that was the only season in which he even played at least 80 games, let alone provided worthwhile offensive production. His defense has always been a calling card but has also fallen off recently. Perez has a .156/.253/.277 slash line over the past two seasons and won't be fantasy relevant in 2022 barring a remarkable resurgence.

Perez broke out in his first season as a primary catcher in 2019, tripling his previous career high with 24 homers while producing a respectable 98 wRC+. In 2020, however, he gave back far more than his original gains. He homered just once in 31 games while hitting a miserable .165/.264/.216, good for a wRC+ of 35. His 34.5 K% was a career high, while his .052 ISO was a career low. Some regression was certainly to be expected in his age-31 season, but not nearly that much. While his .201 xBA indicates he got fairly unlucky, that's still a rather awful number and hardly a surprising one given his career-low 86 mph exit velocity and his minus-2.5 degree launch angle. Hitting the ball softly into the ground is hardly a recipe for success. Perez's 2019 season means he's reached higher highs than most backstops available in his range, but that was very much an outlier in an otherwise poor career at the plate.

Perez took over as Cleveland's No. 1 catcher in 2019 and didn't disappoint, providing elite defense behind the dish while enjoying a breakout season offensively. The backstop played in a career-high 118 games and led the majors with 29 defensive runs saved, thanks in part to his zero passed balls and 41 percent caught stealing rate. On the offensive side of things, Perez's 24 home runs -- which exceeded his output (21) from his previous five big-league seasons combined -- tied for fifth-most among catchers, while his 63 RBI tied for ninth-most. His batted-ball profile suggests the uptick in power is at least somewhat sustainable (6.5% barrels/PA), though he remains a batting average risk (.222 expected average in 2019 per Statcast) thanks to his 28.3 K%. Perez underwent offseason ankle surgery but is expected to be ready for the start of the 2020 season and should be in line for another large workload.

Perez hasn't hit north of .230 since 2014, he's been a league-average offensive contributor only once in his career (2015) and has only twice played more in than 70 games. He struck out a whopping 33.3% of the time last season, largely negating a strong 10.0% walk rate. Perhaps he was hampered by injuries more than the public was led to believe, as he injured both his hand and shoulder in 2018 but never hit the disabled list. There's a chance that bad luck played a part, as the backstop produced his best hard-hit rate last season (40.7%). Yan Gomes and Francisco Mejia are gone, but the Indians brought in Kevin Plawecki in January. The two may split the workload fairly evenly, leaving neither with much mixed-league appeal.

Perez continues to work in tandem with Yan Gomes as the Indians' preferred duo behind the plate, and things could remain that way for another year if the organization's desire to move Francisco Mejia away from the catcher spot continues to materialize. As part-time catchers go, Perez is slightly more interesting than some of the alternatives thanks to his ability to occasionally barrel up a pitch and drive a ball out of the park, but he's a career .216/.309/.362 hitter who seems unlikely to thrive if injuries created an opportunity for him to take on a larger role. That said, his defense is good enough that he could push for more playing time, particularly if Gomes continues to struggle at the plate. The quality of the lineup around him in Cleveland might be good enough to make him a passable second catcher for AL-only league players, but that's likely the extent of his value to fantasy players at the present time.

A broken thumb sustained on a tag in his fourth game of the season cost him almost the entire first half, and the results at the plate suggest that the thumb was a nagging issue after Perez returned immediately following the All-Star break. He was the primary backstop for Cleveland despite the offensive woes, as Perez started 47 of 67 games down the stretch. He will likely reprise his previous role as caddy to incumbent starting catcher Yan Gomes, whose own injury issues could open up a larger window for Perez's playing time at some point this season. Cleveland hopes an offseason of rest and rehabilitation will allow Perez to at least recoup some of the patience that went missing last season. Still, it's not a bad return for the 33rd-round pick that Cleveland invested in the 2008 draft in order to secure Perez's services. There's still a hint of power here that'll at least keep him on a watch list for players in two-catcher leagues.

Perez got a nice bump in playing time when starting catcher Yan Gomes suffered a knee injury in mid-April, finishing the season with a .228/.348/.402 line and hitting seven homers in 70 games for the Indians. He's never hit for much power in the minors (.710 OPS with 22 homers in 514 games) but did manage to hit eight in 209 plate appearances at Triple-A Columbus in 2014 so perhaps the power spike is legit. He's good enough defensively to warrant the occasional start and the added power, if it sticks, gives him a leg up on most reserves in deeper formats. Gomes had a disappointing season at the plate but Perez is of no threat to unseat him for the starting role so he'll be back as Gomes' backup again in 2016.

Although Perez did little with his limited opportunies in his reserve role behind Yan Gomes after his promotion in July, slashing .271/.311/.365 with one homer in 29 games, he flashed some promise in 53 games with Triple-A Columbus to begin the year. A 33rd-round pick in 2008, he hit .305/.405/.517 with eight homers while at Columbus, doubling his home run total from his previous two years combined, while adding 43 RBI and 29 walks. He also played above-average defense behind the plate, but strikeouts have been a major issue at each level (27.4% with the big club last season) and his .378 BABIP seems like an anomoly given his relatively low numbers in past years. Regardless, Carlos Santana's catching days are seemingly over, and Perez appears primed to spend 2015 as the full-time backup, with Tony Walters the only other catcher currently on the 40-man roster.