Former Yankees prospect Oswald Peraza 'absolutely hurt' NY in series finale against Angels

Former Yankees prospect Oswald Peraza had himself some series against his former team.

The infielder helped lead the Angels to an 11-4 win over the Yankees on Thursday afternoon with a home run and three RBI that helped Los Angeles split the four-game series.

And while his teammate Mike Trout will get the headlines for his five-homer performance in the series, you can't overlook what Peraza did against the Yankees. His former manager, Aaron Boone, certainly didn't.

Peraza got the scoring started out of the cleanup spot with a two-run shot off of Max Fried to give the Angels a 2-0 lead in the first inning. But he wasn't done; his game-tying double in the sixth knocked Fried out of the game, and led to the four-run inning that gave the Angels the lead for good.

In the four-game set, Peraza started just three but went 5-for-10 with two home runs and four RBI, while playing his usual slick defense at third base. As Boone said, it was the type of offensive performance they hoped for when he eventually came up to the bigs.

“A lot of good memories here,” Peraza told the media before the series began. “It’s business, it’s baseball. Now I’m with the Angels and enjoy every day.”

While he found playing time with the Angels last season, he struggled offensively. This season, however, he's gotten off to a much better start. He has four home runs this season (18 games) when he had five all of last year (106 games), and has launched three longballs over his last five games. Overall, he's slashing .368/.478/.947 (7-for-19) with four runs, two doubles, three home runs, six RBI, four walks and two stolen bases over his last seven games.

"He looked like what we were excited about several years ago," Boone said after the game. "And then obviously, went through a couple of years of struggling. He’s super talented, always has been. He’s fast-twitched, has power, can run and can do all those things. Clearly, in as good a place as he’s been in a few years. And he absolutely hurt us in this series."

Peraza joined the big league club at the end of the 2022 season and was 15-for-49 (.306) in 18 games. That offseason, there was a lot of hype surrounding Peraza and as the next generation of Yankees infielders. However, Volpe outplayed Peraza that spring and won the starting shortstop job. With and on the roster at the time, Peraza's path to the club was blocked.