An MRI exam revealed that Perez has a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee and a slight meniscus tear, team physician Dr. Michael Ciccotti said. Both conditions should heal without surgery, Ciccotti said.

Perez was injured on a hard takeout slide by Shane Spencer while somehow completing a double play. He laid on the field for several minutes and had to be carted off.

"I saw the guy coming, he's a big guy and I couldn't get out of the way," Perez said before getting the MRI.

Perez, who plays three infield positions and is the team's third-string catcher, hit .304 in 62 games last season. He started 14 games at second base, seven at third and five at shortstop.

Cleveland Indians: Charles Nagy knows he can't fool himself, the Indians or opposing hitters much longer. He has nearly run out of chances -- and time.

	Nagy

"It comes down to the bottom line," the Indians' veteran right-hander said. "You have to get guys out."

Nagy hasn't done much of that for the past two seasons or again this spring, and Monday he was pounded for eight earned runs and 12 hits in just five innings against the Toronto Blue Jays.

And now Nagy, who has been pitching for two years with little cartilage in his elbow, realizes that his playing career is at a crossroads.

He was beaten out for the No. 5 starter's job by rookie Ryan Drese, and a few days ago he was told that the only way he can make the Opening Day roster is as the Indians' long reliever.

"Do I have choice?" said Nagy, once the heart of Cleveland's starting rotation who has given up 22 runs and 41 hits 23 2-3 innings in five exhibition starts.

"I'm running out of time. If they don't feel like I can get guys out, then I won't be on the team."

Pittsburgh Pirates: Armando Rios, still recovering from reconstructive left knee surgery, bruised his right knee during a hard collision with Minnesota first baseman Mike Cuddyer on Monday.

Rios was running hard on a high popup during the seventh inning when he slammed into Cuddyer about halfway down the first-base line. Both players lay on the field briefly, the wind knocked out of them, before getting up.

"He was looking up at the ball and there was a bad sound," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That was a bad collision. The base runner was in no man's land."

"When I looked up, he was on top of me," Rios said. "I hit it straight up and it looked like it might be coming back in (to fair territory), and I started sprinting. He was sprinting, too, and it shook me up a little bit."

The 185-pound Rios, expected to be the Pirates' opening day right fielder, clearly got the worst of the collision with the 6-foot-2, 250-pound Cuddyer, one of the Twins' top prospects.

"He hit me and he's a big guy who was going at full speed," Rios said. "I was just trying to get the air back in me. I just wanted to get up and make sure I could walk."

Afterward, Cuddyer reported no problem other than briefly being shaken up and said, "I feel fine."

"They hit pretty hard," Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said. "He (Rios) has a little soreness in his right knee, but it looks like everything is stable. From all indications, he'll be OK."

Rios felt soreness in his right knee and his left thigh, but said, "It feels pretty good. I'll know a lot more tomorrow when I get up and see how it feels."

Seattle Mariners: Switch-hitter Ben Davis has a pulled an oblique muscle in his right side, but the team has no intention of putting him on the disabled list.

Davis can only hit from the right side of the plate. He has pain when he bats left-handed.

"Right now, we don't anticipate that," manager Lou Piniella said Monday. "It's a concern, but he's going to get some at bats right-handed. He just can't hit left-handed."

Davis, 25, played in a minor league game on Monday.

He said he was injured in a spring game March 13 against the Chicago White Sox.

Pittsburgh Pirates: The final bullpen spot or spots figured to come down to how the candidates perform in the final six spring training games and whether the Pirates elect to have six or seven relievers, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports a minor muscle strain sustained by Mike Fetters in batting practice could complicate matters.

	Fetters

Fetters' left oblique was hurt swinging a bat Saturday -- a reminder of the rib injury that forced out Jason Schmidt a year ago. He will be held out of on-field work at least until Wednesday and possibly later in the week. While no one is overly concerned, Fetters' day-to-day condition could impact roster decisions.

"It was just a fluke thing," Fetters said Sunday. "You work so hard in spring training to get ready for the season and something like this happens. When it first happened, I thought I might be out for a while. It felt much better (Sunday). I'm almost positive it'll be all right."

General manager David Littlefield, manager Lloyd McClendon, all the major-league scouts and several special assistants will gather Monday night for a meeting to discuss the bullpen, utility jobs and issues such as whether to have 12 pitchers or 14 position players on the final roster, which must be set by Sunday.

Chicago White Sox: Every day, reliever Bob Howry would come into the clubhouse and ask how hard he'd thrown. And every day, the radar gun would show the same disappointingly low numbers.

	Howry

"Every day, 86 mph to 89 mph, 86 mph to 89 mph," he said.

With the start of the season only a week away, Howry has given up on the power that's made him such a tough setup man and is concentrating on his pitching.

Ater working 71 innings in 2000, going 2-4 with a 3.17 ERA, Howry had surgery on his right shoulder after the playoffs. His recovery went smoothly, and he didn't seem to have any lingering problems last season. He looked good in the spring and then worked a career-high 78 2/3 innings, tying for sixth in the AL with 21 holds. He was 4-5 with a 4.69 ERA and five saves.

And he did it with the same hard, fast stuff he's always had.

But when he came to spring training last month, his velocity had mysteriously disappeared.

"Everyone's kind of at a loss right now," he said. "I know it's there because I hit it last year, the year after surgery. It's just a matter of getting back there again."

Houston Astros: Manager Jimy Williams on Monday handed the starting shortstop job to Adam Everett, a defensive specialist who had been held back because of his bat.

"We made a decision (that Everett) is going to be our everyday shortstop," Williams said.

Everett said when Williams summoned him to his office Monday afternoon, he didn't know what to think.

"I was a little nervous walking in there, I'm not going to lie to you," Everett said in a story in the Houston Chronicle's online edition Monday. "I didn't know what was going to happen."

Earlier, Williams reassigned Tripp Cromer, Chris Prieto and Alan Zinter, and lefthander C.J. Nitkowski was released.

Going into spring training, the Astros said the shortstop job was Julio Lugo's to lose.

"I have talked to Lugo and I have talked to Everett," Williams said. "We need Lugo, though. He's an important part of our team. Just because he's not starting right now doesn't mean he's not going to be an important factor in our ballclub and helping us win games."

Everett hit .245 at Class AAA New Orleans in 2000 and followed up last season with a .249 average at New Orleans. He was 0-for-3 over nine games last season in the majors.