UPDATE: Scratch that: I misinterpreted Sherman’s tweet, which read as follows:
Sorry for the confusion, but I read that as a declarative sentence: “The Mets today released Ollie Perez.” I thought the “until one begins” part meant “until there’s new news, because he’s gone now.” Yes, I see now that he was speaking hypothetically. Yes, I’d like a do-over on this one. Yes, speed kills sometimes. Ugh.
8:27 AM: As spring training officially opens today, I think everyone was getting ready to start writing the “Oliver Perez is fighting for a job” story. That may now be moot, as Joel Sherman just tweeted that the Mets released Perez.
We’ll update when more info comes in -- Sherman’s tweet was a tad cryptic -- but if Perez was actually released, Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson just saved themselves a month’s worth of questions about the guy. He can’t start anymore. He got knocked around the Mexican league this winter. His only hope was to catch on as a lefty specialist, but I don’t think anyone was at all confident that he could.
If Perez is gone, it’s good riddance to perhaps the worst contract Omar Minaya ever gave out. And it’s also good day to a new approach in Mets land: understanding sunk costs and disposing of them in the best way possible.