League Checking Into The Legitimacy of Perez's Injury

  The Mets twice tried to send pitcher Oliver Perez to the minor leagues, but he twice refused so instead of asking him a third time the team simply put him on the DL. Now it appears that the MLB is looking into whether or not Perez is legitimately hurt.

“This could be 100 percent legitimate,” the official said. “When there are questions, we look into it.”

This could potentially be a big deal and end up costing the Mets a bit of money through a fine. The reason why Perez was able to reject a minor league assignment is because the MLB Players Association fought for that provision to be included in the last CBA. If a team sends a player to the DL with a fake injury they are effectively getting around that rule that I am sure the MLBPA would like to see strictly enforced.

Perez did have an MRI taken this week and despite the fact that the words ‘phantom injury’ have been thrown around a lot there could be something going on. Perez has always been a rather inconsistent pitcher, but this season he has been consistently bad. His velocity is down and his location is all over the place.

The only thing is that if there really was a problem, why didn’t the Mets just put him on the DL in the first place? Why all the fighting about voluntary demotions?

I’m sure these are questions the MLB has as well. I’ll continue to follow this story as it develops.

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