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Martin Perez 'Likely' to Sign Rangers Qualifying Offer: Report

The deadline for Martin Perez to sign the one-year offer of $19.65 million to remain with the Rangers is Tuesday.

Texas Rangers pitcher Martín Pérez may not be testing the free-agent market after all.

MLB Network reported on Monday that Pérez is “likely to accept” the Rangers qualifying offer before Tuesday’s deadline. This assumes that the market doesn’t change.

The qualifying offer for this offseason is $19.65 million. If Pérez accepts the offer, that would be his 2023 salary. It doesn’t rule out the Rangers and Pérez coming to a longer-term agreement later in the offseason.

During last week’s general manager meetings, MLB Network reported that the two parties “aren’t close to agreeing on a multi-year deal.”

That led the Rangers to make the qualifying offer to Pérez on Thursday. The deadline to accept or reject is 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday.

If Pérez decides to reject the offer, the Rangers would get draft pick compensation if the left-hander signs elsewhere.

Negotiations on a new contract have been ongoing since the end of the season, with both Pérez and Rangers general manager Chris Young saying they want a longer-term deal.

Young noted the Rangers’ desire at his final press conference of the season. The Rangers have made it clear for months that they want Pérez back for 2023. Pérez has expressed his desire to return on multiple occasions.

Pérez, who broke in with the Rangers in 2012 and played for Texas for eight seasons, returned on a one-year, $4 million deal in 2022 and ended up becoming the Rangers ace. He went 12-8 with a 2.89 ERA, the latter among the best in the American League. He threw 196 1/3 innings, just two off his career high. He did have a career-high 169 strikeouts. He also made the All-Star team for the first time.

While he was consistent all season, his May was something to remember, as he earned both Rangers Player of the Month and American League Pitcher of the Month honors.

Pérez went 4-0 with an 0.64 ERA (three earned runs in 42 1/3 innings) in six starts in May, and the Rangers were 6-0 in those outings. It was the second-lowest ERA in club history for any month by a Texas pitcher with at least five starts (Yovani Gallardo, 0.54 in June 2015).

As part of that, in an eight-start stretch from April 23 to May 31, Pérez went undefeated with six or more innings in each outing while allowing no home runs and no more than one earned run in each start. According to STATS LLC, the only other pitchers to compile those statistics over an eight-start span since earned runs became an official statistic in 1913 are Hall of Famers Walter Johnson (1913-14) and Bob Gibson (1968).


You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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