Pirates, C Roberto Perez agree to one-year, $5 million deal

Roberto Perez Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Report: Pirates, two-time Gold Glove C Roberto Perez agree to one-year, $5 million deal

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated 11/30/21

Yan Gomes won't be the only new catcher in the NL Central in 2022, as the Pittsburgh Pirates and 32-year-old Roberto Perez came to terms on a deal on Tuesday.

Catcher Roberto Perez and the Pittsburgh Pirates are in agreement on a one-year contract, a source familiar with the deal tells ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 30, 2021

Roberto Perez agrees to Pirates deal. $5M, 1 year. @JeffPassan 1st
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 30, 2021

Perez was selected by the then-Cleveland Indians in the 33rd round of the 2008 MLB June Amateur draft and has spent his entire eight-year MLB career with the organization.

Through his first five seasons, Perez was a part-time player, but the native of Puerto Rico broke out with a 24-home run campaign in 2019. That was the only season of Perez's career thus far where he's played in over 100 games (119), and in addition to the career-best home run total, he set career-highs in RBIs (63), runs scored (46), hits (93) and walks (45), while earning his first of two straight Gold Glove awards.

During Cleveland's 2016 playoff run to Game 7 of the World Series, Perez went finished with three home runs and seven RBIs in 15 games played.

More must-reads: