Oswald Peraza leading Angels revenge tour vs. Yankees made no sense (but was obvious)

On Tuesday night, Oswald Peraza returned to the Bronx as a member of the Los Angeles Angels and got revenge on the Yankees for his own malfeasance.

In a game marked by the Angels ambushing Yankees starter Ryan Weathers, Peraza notably never missed, finishing 3-for-3 with a walk and a home run (which he punctuated by rounding the bases with added fervor). Every time a former Yankee who scuffled here returns to face his old team, there's a creeping sense of dread that said player is about to bust out, no matter how middling they've been in their new city (and the circumstances of their departure from New York).

That was, of course - duh! - the case on Tuesday night. It would've been lost to history amid the blowout if Yankee fans hadn't been so certain it was going to happen, especially in contrast with Ryan McMahon's $16 million leadoff bunt down 6-0.

Oswald Peraza "Yankees mistreatment" narrative has to stop

Peraza's Yankees story has gotten one of the saddest overnight rebrands I can recall. The combination of one strong hate-fueled game, plus McMahon's endless slumber, has convinced a bunch of people who could not get rid of Peraza fast enough last summer that, actually, the Yankees should've given him a ninth shot to start instead.

While Peraza may have been a better option than the final year of DJ LeMahieu last season, we actually had plenty of evidence that he actually might not have been, and that experience had a right to win out. Peraza was a glove-first borderline top 100 prospect in the Yankees' system, and opinions varied among experts about his long-term viability as a starter. By the time they brought him up - and disrespectfully debuted him in the ninth inning of a lost cause at Tropicana Field - most believed his prospect peak had already come and gone.

But for the "Yankees never gave him a chance" crowd, he actually got a golden chance just one month later, starting an ALCS game in Houston out of nowhere. He went hitless. If anything, that was too bold an opportunity, and might've intimidated him but you cannot argue that wasn't a golden chance.

From that point forward, Peraza got 52 games and 191 plate appearances to hit .191 with two homers in an increasingly lost 2023 season. He barely cameoed in 2024, then played 71 games last season (easy to forget), hitting an even more forgettable .162 (and .186 after being dealt across the country). He's up to .267 with an .838 OPS this year mostly because he killed us on Tuesday night. We have no idea whether he's capable of replicating it. We do know he got several years to show the Yankees his mettle, and he didn't, in either the majors or minors (he hit .246 with a .735 OPS at Double-A Somerset in 2024).

Don't question why the Yankees didn't give Peraza a chance. Question what it is about the Yankees that fuels even the players they did open the door to to seemingly resent them, with many of them improving immediately upon their departure.

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