When the 2024 season ended, Cionel Pérez had a 4.53 ERA in 62 games. The lefty became a favorite out of the bullpen in 2022, with his fiery attitude, flowing hair, and 1.40 ERA. He lost some of his magic in 2023 and even more in 2024. He was never a big strikeout guy and his walk rate ballooned. He was no longer reliable.
Pérez wasn’t the only lefty in the bullpen in 2024. Danny Coulombe had an outstanding 2023 with the Orioles and was also very good in 33 games in 2024 when he wasn’t injured. Pérez was 28
years old in 2024; Coulombe was 34.
On November 4th, the Orioles picked up their $2.2 million option on Pérez and declined Coulombe’s $4 million option. Coulombe later signed with the Twins for $3 million. It was a surprising move not to keep Coulombe, as noted in Mark Brown’s story on this site. Mark presciently stated in the story, “It’s true that Coulombe will be heading into his age 35 season, so there is the possibility that he declines suddenly and substantially, but I would have rather had him than Pérez.”
To me, the 2025 story of Cionel Pérez is less about his performance on the field and more about poor decisions made by the Orioles front office. It wasn’t an either/or situation with Pérez and Coulombe. The Orioles could have kept them both, after all. But the Orioles did not keep them both. They chose to keep the pitcher in multi-year decline and part ways with another in a two-run stretch of success.
Those trends continued in 2025. Pérez had a miserable season. He allowed 20 runs in 21.2 innings. He walked 18. The once fan favorite had completely lost it, and it was now the second straight season of his futility. He was a very bad part of a bad bullpen.
On May 23rd, Pérez pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning against the Red Sox, who were up 6-2. He returned for the eighth and faced five batters. All five reached, all five scored. The Orioles went on to lose, 19-5.
That game was Pérez’s 19th game of the season. In Coulombe’s 19th game of the season, he faced the Orioles and logged his 19th straight zero-run appearance of the season.
One day later, the Orioles designated Cionel Pérez for assignment. He cleared waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. Things did not get better for him. He appeared in 21 games with the Tides and continued to walk anyone who would stand still long enough. He issued 19 free passes in 22.1 innings, and opposing batters hit .323 against him with an .840 OPS.
After his scoreless outing against the Orioles, Coulombe had a short stint on the injured list, then returned to pitch 21 more games for the Twins. He allowed four earned runs in that time to bring his ERA up to 1.16. With the Twins out of contention at the trade deadline, they sent Coulombe to Texas for a pitching prospect. One wonders who Mike Elias could have gotten in return if Coulombe had remained an Oriole.
Pérez’s last game with the Tides came on August 16th. On the 20th, he was placed on the injured list. On September 29th, he became a free agent. Will he return to the Orioles next season? Probably not, although if he wants to sign a minor league deal and hang out at Triple-A in case he can recapture some of his previous magic, it won’t bother anyone.
Cionel Pérez has a great origin story and was an exciting player on an exciting Orioles team a few years ago. But in my mind, it’s very unlikely he’ll recapture anything. He was very good in 2022, but since then has gotten increasingly worse. I wish him well and hope he figures out all those walks and finds his way back to the majors. But on a team that already needs a pitching overhaul, there doesn’t seem to be a place for him with the Orioles.
I don’t pretend to know anything about Mike Elias or his thought process. I hope that over the course of the 2025 season he examined his reasons for choosing to part ways with one relief pitcher while clinging to another, who had been demonstrably worse. I hope that whatever he finds helps him to not make a similar call in the future, because the Orioles need all the help they can get.
Tomorrow: Ryan Mountcastle
