The White Sox announced that left-hander Martín Pérez has declined his end of a $10MM mutual option for 2026. He will take a $1.5MM buyout and return to free agency. The Sox also announced that they triggered their club option on outfielder Luis Robert Jr., a decision that was previously reported.
Pérez, 35 in April, is coming off a mostly lost season. He signed with the Sox in January, a $5MM guarantee in the form of a $3.5MM salary for 2025 plus the aforementioned buyout on the mutual option. He made just four starts before elbow inflammation put him on the injured list. He was diagnosed with a flexor strain and didn’t return to the club until August. He finished the year with a 3.54 earned run average in 56 innings.
Given that he’s now one year older and is coming off a less impressive walk year, he should have less earning power compared to last offseason. That makes it somewhat surprising that he is turning down his end of the option. Perhaps he figured the club was going to turn him down anyway, so he proactively walked away and therefore avoided the awkward situation in which he would trigger his end but then be rejected by the team.
He will now return to free agency and look for his next opportunity. His 19.3% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate in 2025 weren’t especially impressive but he’s never been a huge strikeout guy. He at least finished the season healthy and could get another deal to serve as a veteran back-end guy in 2026.
The White Sox currently project to have a fairly inexperienced rotation. Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Grant Taylor, Yoendrys Gómez and Jonathan Cannon are some of the best options currently on the roster but no one in that group has more than 256 big league innings. Perhaps the Sox and Pérez could reunite but both parties will now be able to explore alternatives.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images