When the Cincinnati Reds traded for Jose Peraza they named him as the second baseman of the future. The only problem was that they still had Brandon Phillips, and while they were trying to trade him, they miscalculated and Phillips vetoed not one, but two trades that offseason. It left the team without a place to play Peraza at the big league level, so the team sent him to Triple-A Louisville where he slid over to shortstop.
The Reds called him up several times this season, starting in May, though he never really got much of an every day role. He was used as a pinch hitter at times with the occasional start mixed in, though many of them came in left field – a position that he didn’t play much of in his career. Between May 14th and July 31st, over the span of several different call ups, Jose Peraza had 93 total plate appearances with the Reds and hit .250/.290/.284 to go along with two walks and 12 strikeouts.
The results weren’t very good, but without any sort of consistent playing time, particularly for a 22-year-old rookie, it wasn’t surprising. He was sent back to Triple-A to get everyday playing time at the start of August. With Zack Cozart dealing with an achilles tendon issue, the Reds called him up to play shortstop on August 20th. Peraza has played every day since and he’s had multiple hits in every game but one. He’s managed to post a .433/.433/.633 line with three doubles and a home run since returning to go with just three strikeouts in 30 plate appearances. He hasn’t walked since coming back up, but he’s been hitting everything and rarely striking out.
Small Sample Size Alert! But, let’s take a look at the exit velocity for Jose Peraza since his call up versus what it was prior to August with the Reds:
| Split | Exit Velo | % of 95+ | %90+ |
| August | 89.0 | 36% | 56% |
| May-July | 82.5 | 24% | 34% |
In both ranges we are dealing with a small sample sizes. From May through July we are dealing with just 68 balls in play. In August we are dealing with just 25 balls in play.
While the data is limited we are seeing a clear difference in production. Jose Peraza is clearly hitting the baseball harder. His exit velocity has gone from a range that was among the worst in baseball to league average between the two samples. He is hitting the ball 95+ MPH more than a third of the time and he’s hitting the ball 90+ MPH more than half of the time. In fact, since returning he’s hitting the ball at 95+ MPH more frequently than he was hitting it 90+ MPH in his previous call ups.
The recent hot streak for Peraza has pushed his season line to .297/.325/.373. If he could repeat that line moving forward and play either shortstop of second base, he would be a valuable asset. That is also helped out by his value on the bases. Out of 418 players in baseball with at least 90 plate appearances this season in the big leagues, Jose Peraza is tied for 30th in baserunning value added despite having just 117 plate appearances (does not include the Friday night game as Fangraphs hasn’t updated their values as of 2:15am when I’m typing this).