Mets fall in 10; Perez likely out of rotation Lefty may be sent to 'pen or Minors to get back on track

PHILADELPHIA -- In the messy postmortems of a troubling loss to the Phillies on Saturday, the Mets manager and general manager spoke of forthcoming discussions and decisions, of options and alternatives and of Oliver Perez. A game that could have been won had been lost in the most troubling way, a bases-loaded walk. But that hardly warranted a mention amid the issues involving the problematic pitcher.

Will the Mets ask Perez to accept assignment to the Minor Leagues or will his exile take him to the bullpen? What will they do? How will he be fixed? Can he be fixed? They'll talk about it, Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya said repeatedly. What neither man said through all the hand-ringing, though, was that retaining Perez in the rotation was an option. Evidently, it is not.

So come Thursday, when the Mets return home from this Philadelphia-Atlanta excursion to engage the Phillies at Citi Field, someone other than the pitcher on whom the Mets bestowed a $36 million contract in February will be the starting pitcher. The Mets don't know the identity of the replacement. Jon Niese? Ken Takahashi? But that's where Perez is at his juncture. His work has been so poor, the Mets feel obliged to eliminate him from their plans even though they don't know how they will replace him.

Perez saw to that in a remarkably imprecise 18-batter performance that covered merely 2 1/3 innings. Eleven batters reached base -- six on walks, one of which went to the opposing pitcher with the bases loaded. Some 3 1/2 hours later, Sean Green repeated that egregious transgression, forcing in the decisive run in a 6-5, 10-inning loss. But it was Perez who was regarded as the primary offender on this day; Green was merely an accomplice by comparison.

Perez said "I feel embarrassed," characterized his pitching as "horrible" and seemed to indicate he would accept demotion to the Minor Leagues if the Mets were to suggest that course of action probably would be the most beneficial for him.

"If I need it," Perez said, "I'll have to go."

Perez has sufficient service in the big leagues -- five years is the threshold -- that he can reject assignment to the Minors.

"Everything will be considered," Manuel said. "I'll sit down with our pitching people, put our heads together and try to come up with a plan."