How are John Maine & Oliver Perez Doing?

It wasn’t too long go that John Maine and Oliver Perez were anchors of the Mets starting rotation. They came up huge in the playoffs in 2006 after Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez went down. Oddly, they each went 15-10 in 2007 and had nearly identical records in 2008 — Perez went 10-7, Maine 10-8. But then the bottom fell out for both of them — Maine went a combined 8-9 the following two seasons, Perez 3-9 after signing that huge contract. Both were cut loose after last season. Let’s check in on our old pals, see how they are doing, see if the Mets made the right decisions.

Of course they did! Maine signed a minor league deal with the Colorado Rockies. On Thursday he decided to leave the team’s Triple-A ballclub after pitching horribly. In 11 starts Maine was 1-3 with a 7.43 era. He had 37 walks and 35 strikeouts — not a great ratio to say the least. Maine said he would like to keep playing, but right now he feels like he needs some time away from the game. My guess is that he will be handing in his retirement papers very soon.

As far as Perez, the Nationals took a flier on him. Why not — the Mets are paying his $12 million salary this season. Perez was assigned to Double-A Harrisburg, where he is 2-1 with a 2.22 era in five starts. More significantly, he has 21 strikeouts and just three walks — a much better ratio, especially from a guy who couldn’t find the plate the past couple of season with the Mets. However Perez was placed on the disabled list with a lat injury on June 16. Regardless of his good numbers, the Nationals are apparently not impressed. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing him in the big leagues anytime soon,” said one team official.

So yeah, the Mets made the right move getting rid of both of these guys, as if that were really in question.