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MLB trade deadline day is a massive day for baseball insiders on social media. Whether it's Jeff Passan, Jon Heyman, Jon Morosi, or someone else, every fan has their newsbreaker of choice. On a busy day like MLB trade deadline day, fans likely have notifications on for those insiders. Even so, fans may have missed Jeff Passan getting into it over Edgleen Perez with ex-MLB player Doug Mientkiewicz.
“Among the return to the Pirates in Bednar deal, per ESPN sources: Catcher Rafael Flores, who tore up AA, is now at AAA, is a top-shelf framer, and regarded as a big league-ready catcher. A very good centerpiece. Also in it: Edgleen Perez, who is 19 with excellent swing decision,” Passan reported. This was adding the return the Pirates got from the Yankees for closer David Bednar.
“Man what a time to be alive when a non baseball person writes ‘excellent swing decisions' for a guy hitting 209 in A ball and is a career .241 hitter. I swear some scouts and writers will say anything to sound somewhat intelligent to non baseball people,” Mientkiewicz responded.
Mientkiewicz is not wrong, as Perez's numbers have gone down from Rookie ball to A ball. But Passan still slapped back. “That description came from a scout, Doug. Do you hate them, too, or are you just bitter because batting average is no longer the metric people care about, and it’s the only one you were ever good at? Stay bitter, guy.”
Mientkiewicz spent 12 years in the majors, playing mostly first base. He hit over .300 in two seasons and finished with a career average of .271. Many scouts have shifted their focus to more advanced statistics than batting average, which may have left Mientkiewicz behind. Whether Perez makes good swing decisions or not remains to be seen. But if he does pop at the major-league level, Passan and his source will certainly have the last laugh.
