Roberto Perez (C, CLE) - Week 15 Waiver Wire Pickups

July 6, 2019

Brady Grove profiles Cleveland Indians backstop Roberto Perez as a potential waiver wire acquisition of value for fantasy baseball leagues in Week 15 of the 2019 MLB campaign.

BALLER MOVE: Add in Two-Catcher Leagues

OWNED IN: 18% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Maybe it speaks to the unexpected depth present in the middle-tiers of the catcher position this season, but 30-year old Roberto Perez is having a breakout season in his sixth year with the Cleveland Indians, and is white-hot coming off of an absolutely destructive month of June. Starting off slow, he has accelerated with each passing month, and crushed an impressive seven home runs with a slash of .279/.342/.618 over 68 AB in June, and has kept the ball rolling to kick off July by already smacking a homer and a triple in just five AB.

That gives "Bebo" a total of 15 home runs with an .841 OPS over 194 AB in 2019. His few detracting qualities come in the fact that he has been striking out at a 28.5% rate, and his placement of batted balls could be a little better in Progressive Field as suggested by his 1.47 GB/FB ratio, 32.8% pull rate, and 7.1-degree launch angle. However, his quality of contact on pitches he's made contact with and his eye for the zone have more than made up for any detraction. Perez has been taking walks at an 11.8% clip, while creating 41.8% hard contact, which in conjunction with his 90.7 MPH exit velocity and 403-foot average home run distance makes his career-outlier ISO of .263 look a bit more sustainable. He has certainly cemented his spot as Cleveland's starting catcher over Kevin Plawecki, and in the context of deeper formats and two-catcher leagues, there is no sense in waiting around for weeks wondering if Roberto Perez's season of success has been a fluke.