MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins have agreed to a one-year contract with left-handed pitcher Martin Perez, which includes a club option for a second season, a source confirmed to MLB.com's Jon Paul Morosi. The club has not confirmed the deal.
The Twins have been looking to build their pitching depth this offseason, and Perez could bring a more experienced option to the competition for the unclaimed fifth spot in the Twins' rotation with several young pitchers, including Fernando Romero, Adalberto Mejia, Kohl Stewart, Stephen Gonsalves and Chase De Jong.
The 27-year-old Perez spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Rangers and had a 2-7 record with a career-worst 6.22 ERA and 1.78 WHIP in 85 1/3 innings in 2018. Though he had been used almost exclusively as a starter prior to last season, he was moved primarily to the bullpen in August after recording a 6.95 ERA through his first 13 starts.
Perez became a free agent after the Rangers did not exercise a $7.5 million club option for 2019. Though he went 10-6 with a 3.62 ERA in 2013 and finished sixth in American League Rookie of the Year Award voting, he hasn't recorded an ERA below 4.00 since then and has a career 4.63 ERA while calling the hitter-friendly Globe Life Park his home park for his entire career.
The southpaw has always pitched to contact, as he's never posted a strikeout rate higher than 16.9 percent at the Major League level and has eclipsed 100 strikeouts in a season only twice in his career. He became increasingly reliant on his sinker in 2018, which he threw more than 50 percent of the time, per Statcast™.