From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Q&A with their baseball beat writer:
I heard from multiple sources at December's Winter Meetings -- which were in Dallas, by the way -- that the Rangers would give up Blalock for Perez and that the Pirates declined the overture more than once.
Was it true? As with all of these kinds of things, there usually are only a handful of people who know for sure. But this one seemed to be more fire than smoke.
I answered in a Q&A in January that I would not have made that deal, based mostly on what I felt were inflated numbers that Blalock has produced at the Bandbox at Arlington. (Check out his home-road splits.) I also based it on a belief that Perez's encouraging performances late last season -- along with some zip restored to the fastball -- would carry over into this one.
In hindsight ... still hard to say, I think.