Martín Pérez Desires to Stay With Rangers

When the Texas Rangers fired president of baseball operations Jon Daniels last month, the team’s majority owner, Ray Davis, said the organization knew what it needed to acquire in the offseason.

Among those items was “two front-line starters.”

Do the Rangers already have one of them?

Left-hander Martín Pérez will likely be the team’s pitcher of the year when the postseason awards are handed out. His one-year, $4 million contract is an absolute bargain. But, at age 31, he’s likely looking for one more "big" contract.

He wants that contract to be in Texas.

“Yeah they know that,” Pérez told GBag Nation during an appearance on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday. “We just need to check the numbers and figure out what it’s going to be and move forward. They know that I want to stay here. I love the city and I love the fans.”

Pérez is 10-6 with a 2.82 ERA. He earned his first All-Star Game berth and pitched a scoreless inning in the American League’s victory in July.

In May, he was named the American League Pitcher of the Month.

Pérez finished May with a 4-0 record. In 42 1/3rd innings pitcher, he had a 0.64 earned run average, 33 strikeouts and a 1.4 WAR (wins above replacement).

His 1.42 earned run average in May was the lowest in franchise history through a pitcher's first 10 starts in a season. The previous low was 1.60 by another left-hander, Kenny Rogers, in 1995.

Also, Pérez was just the third MLB pitcher since 1913 — when earned runs were officially tracked to post an eight-start span in which he went undefeated, did not allow a home run, had six or more innings in each game and allowed one or fewer earned runs in each game. The other two pitchers are Hall of Famers Bob Gibson (1968) and Walter Johnson (1913-14).

He is expected to start on Sunday against Toronto at Globe Life Field.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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