Several sites are reporting that Odalis Perez, a former MLB pitcher, passed away as a result of injuries sustained in a fall in his native Dominican Republic He was 44.
He played with the Atlanta Braves (1998–2001), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2002–2006), the Kansas City Royals (2006–2007), and the Washington Nationals (2008).
Pérez joined the Braves in September 1998, going 0-1. However, he won a game for the Braves in the 1998 postseason, becoming the first pitcher in MLB history to earn a playoff win without having won a regular season game.
On May 2, 1999, Pérez got his first regular-season victory pitching 5.2 innings and allowing two earned runs with seven strikeouts, as Atlanta rolled to a 5-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
On January 15, 2002, he was traded by the Braves with Andrew Brown (minors) and Brian Jordan to the Dodgers for Gary Sheffield.
In a two-year period from 2002-2003, he won 27 games (15 in 2002, 12 in 2003), which was tied for the third most wins by a left-handed pitcher in the National League, joining Tom Glavine behind Randy Johnson and Al Leiter, and 10th most in the majors. Beside this, he was the first Dodger left-hander to register at least 12 wins in consecutive seasons since Fernando Valenzuela accomplished the feat between 1986 (21) and 1987 (14). During the same period, Pérez also had the sixth-most strikeouts mark (296) among all majors lefties, ranking fourth in the National League behind Johnson, Randy Wolf and Leiter.
Also in those two seasons, Pérez allowed two earned runs or less in 33 of his 62 starts, being selected to the All-Star game in 2002 — a season in which he pitched a pair of one-hitter games.
A career highlight for Pérez occurred on August 28, 2002, as he defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium with a score of 1–0, during which he pitched 8.0 scoreless innings and slugged his first career home run for the only run of the game. With this victory, he became the first Major League pitcher to win a 1–0 game and hit the game-winning homer since the Dodgers’ Bob Welch accomplished the feat on June 17, 1983. This game also marked the beginning of closer Éric Gagné's record-breaking streak, the first game of 84 consecutive saves.
Pérez had 18 no decisions in 2004, the most among MLB starting pitchers for that season.
In 2006, concerns about Pérez's work ethic and attitude arose, and the front office soon was looking to deal the left hander, as then-GM Ned Colletti details in his memoir, The Big Chair. Shortly after a disappointing outing in a 10-8 loss in Arizona on May 2, owner Frank McCourt approached Colletti, telling him to trade Odalis. "I don't care if you've got to eat the entire contract. Get him out of here." On July 25, 2006, Perez and two minor league pitchers (Blake Johnson and Julio Pimentel) were traded to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Elmer Dessens. Cash considerations were also sent to the Royals in the deal.
On October 31, 2007, the Royals declined Perez's $9 million option and paid him a $1.5 million buyout.
Below is the translation of the article written about Perez's death in a local Dominican newspaper: "The outstanding Dominican baseball player Odalís Pérez, who played with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Major League Baseball and also with the Leones del Escogido and Estrellas Orientales in the Dominican league, died on Thursday.
Early reports indicate that Perez fell from the stairs at his home, where he was alone in the afternoon hours of Thursday. His brother found him at the residence after 6:00 p.m.
Odalis Perez, a left-handed pitcher, worked for 10 years in Major League Baseball. He played for three years for the Atlanta Braves, for another 5 for the Dodgers, 2 with the Kansas City flannel and 1 with the Washington Nationals.
Perez was 43 years old at the time of his death. He was born in Las Matas de Farfan, in the province of San Juan, in the Dominican Republic.
In major league baseball he won 73 games and lost 82. He had a 4.46 clean run percentage.
