Remembering Pascual Perez

Pascual Perez played for the Montreal Expos from 1987-1989, and while those Expos teams disappointed compared to the teams before (1979-1981) and after (1993-1994), it was a good time in Expos history, and Perez played a big role in that.

In the late 80s, the Montreal Expos were already falling behind other teams who could spend more and had to look for hidden gems. In Perez and teammate Dennis Martinez, the team found two (Oil Can Boyd was another) of the best National League pitchers in their time with the Expos.

In fact, a lot of people don’t realize how good Perez was. He was mainly remembered for his hair and antics on the mound, both of which found their place later in Expos history thanks to Pedro Martinez (the hair) and Pascual’s younger brother Carlos Perez (the antics). But from 1987-1989, Perez had the 13th most (Fangraphs) WAR of any National League pitchers in that time frame with 8.8 despite only having a record of 28-21. Along with that was his ERA and FIP. His ERA of 2.80 in that period was third in the NL among qualified starters and his FIP was sixth at 3.05 – the same mark as Orel Hershiser who was in his prime in that period.

Perez was murdered in his Dominican home during an armed robbery. He was 55 years old and reports say that he would have received his Major League Baseball pension money which would have provided motive for the attack. He is the second member of the Expos to be lost too soon with Gary Carter passing away from cancer earlier this year.

Perez also pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees over his Major League career which was riddled with substance abuse issues depriving him of reaching his full potential.