For three years now, Hernan Perez has essentially been Craig Counsell’s “sixth man” — never a true starter, but filling in enough that he basically gets a low-end starter-level number of at-bats.
That changed a bit in 2018, when he only saw 334 plate appearances in 132 games — down from a career-high 458 in 136 games the year before. Part of that was the midseason acquisition of Mike Moustakas cutting into his playing time, but a large part of it was also his ineffectiveness (which in a way may have made the Moustakas move necessary).