Milwaukee Brewers: Why won’t they bring back Hernan Perez?

The Milwaukee Brewers designated Hernan Perez for assignment back on June 28th. Is it time to bring him back up to the big leagues?

It came as a surprise that Hernan Perez was not claimed on waivers after being DFA’ed over a month ago. But he accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A to stick with the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

In that time, Tyler Saladino came up to be the backup shortstop, which was a complete disaster, despite his two grand slams. Saladino was far worse than Perez was offensively in 2019 and has since been sent back to Triple-A. So now the backup shortstop is Mike Moustakas, who hasn’t played shortstop in a game in over a decade.

How is Hernan Perez playing?

Since going down to Triple-A just over a month ago, Perez has a .290/.372/.523 slash line with five home runs and a .895 OPS. Perez is hitting .317 over his last 10 games.

When Perez was sent down to Triple-A, he was in the midst of his worst offensive season in the big leagues, slashing just .235/.277/.383. He’s normally been a much better hitter than that, but a slump pushed him out of the big league picture. Now, he’s working his way back into it.

Defensively, Perez is still playing his above-average defense at a variety of positions. He’s getting most of his time down in Triple-A though at first base, with second base closely following. He’s only played a couple of games at shortstop, third base, and left field.

Why is it time to bring Perez back?

The Milwaukee Brewers are currently operating with Mike Moustakas as their backup shortstop to Orlando Arcia. The last time Moustakas actually played shortstop in a real game was back in 2008 in Low-A ball with the Royals. It’s been 11 years.

In 2008, Moustakas made 12 errors in 57 games at shortstop and was moved full-time to third base the next season.

The Brewers need a real backup shortstop that can do a serviceable job and provide decent range at the position. They tried Saladino, and it didn’t work. Now, it’s time for Hernan Perez to take back his spot on this roster.

Clubhouse Presence

Hernan Perez was one of the longest tenured Brewers on this roster when he was DFA’ed, surviving through pretty much the entire rebuild process. He became a leader in the clubhouse, and a vocal presence.

A native Venezuelan, Perez was a major part of the big Venezuelan contingent the Milwaukee Brewers had on their roster. That group has been depleted after Perez was sent down and Jesus Aguilar was traded to Tampa Bay.

Perez and Aguilar were two of the most outgoing players on this roster and they’re a big source of fun and light-heartedness for this team. For the past month or so, it appears this team had lost its mojo, and that all started shortly after Perez was sent down. Whether Perez’s departure directly caused the struggles or not, losing that kind of clubhouse presence does have an impact.

The Brewers to bring Perez back to the big leagues. He’s hitting again, the team needs his ability to play shortstop, and they need his presence in the clubhouse.

The Milwaukee Brewers need to get hot down the stretch if they’re going to win the division again, and getting their mojo back will go a long ways towards that.