California Angels / Anaheim Angels Percival was then drafted by the
California Angels in the 6th round, with the 175th overall selection, of the
1990 Major League Baseball draft as a
catcher. He
batted .203 in his only season as a catcher with the
Boise Hawks and was converted to a
pitcher when coaches noticed that his return throws to the mound were actually faster than the pitches he caught. He made his major league debut as a reliever in , and was mostly used as a
setup man for
Lee Smith. He was coached by his father Richard Percival for all of his childhood years. In , he became the regular
closer for the Angels and had 36
saves with 100
strikeouts in 74 innings. He is one of only six pitchers in the Angels' 44-year history to strike out at least 100 batters in a season without starting a game. The others are
Mark Clear (105, ),
DeWayne Buice (109, ),
Bryan Harvey (101, )
Scot Shields (109, ) and
Francisco Rodríguez (123, 2004). He had a career-high 42 saves in , and enjoyed his best season in with a 4–1 record, 40 saves, 68 strikeouts, and a 1.92
ERA. That year en route to winning the
World Series, he was 7 for 7 in save opportunities, tying
John Wetteland for most saves in one postseason (since tied by
Brad Lidge,
Koji Uehara and
Greg Holland;
Robb Nen was also 7 for 7 but blew one on the eighth opportunity). A four-time
All-Star, Percival compiled a 29–38 record with a 2.99 ERA in 586.2 innings for the Angels. His 355 saves grant him inclusion in the
300 save club. However, his
strikeouts per nine innings went down considerably after his years as an elite closer. In , his
K/9 rate was 11.08 and decreased to 5.98 in 2004. His
fastball, once clocked consistently at 96–100 MPH, was down to about 92–93 MPH in 2004, due to a degenerative hip condition that first appeared in 2003, which forced him to alter his pitching delivery. Percival's contract with the Angels expired in 2004 and he became a
free agent at the end of that season. Rather than bring Percival back, the Angels decided to turn to young phenom
Francisco Rodríguez to close, motivated largely by Rodríguez's much lower price tag and concerns about Percival's age and health. The Angels offered to negotiate a reduced role (at a correspondingly reduced salary) for Percival to return as a setup man, but Percival decided to seek opportunities elsewhere that would allow him to remain a closer.
Detroit Tigers Percival signed with the
Detroit Tigers as a free agent for the season. However, after a mediocre start to his career at
Comerica Park, during which he converted eight saves from 11 opportunities and posted an ERA of 5.76, Percival suffered a serious injury to his right forearm in early July. The severity of the injury ended his season, and put the rest of his career in doubt. After attempting to recuperate, Percival reported to
spring training for the Tigers in . However, on his first outing he again suffered significant pain and left the team. After spending the entire 2006 season on the Tigers'
disabled list and working for the team as an advance scout, Percival's contract with the Tigers expired at the end of the 2006 season. Though he didn't pitch a game during the Tigers' run to the
American League Championship, the team voted Percival a ring and a full playoff share. Appreciative of this gesture, he used the money to buy a suite at Comerica Park for his teammates' wives. In November and December 2006, during his time off from baseball, Percival funded and personally built a new clubhouse at the
Riverside Sports Complex, the home venue of his
college baseball program,
UC Riverside.
St. Louis Cardinals before an Angels game in 2012 On January 19, , the
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim hired Percival as a special assignment pitching instructor. However, believing his arm to have finally healed, he requested his release from his
minor league coaching contract to pursue a comeback. Percival signed a contract with the
St. Louis Cardinals and joined the major league team on June 26. Percival was the fourth member of the 2002 championship Angels team to play for the 2007 Cardinals, joining
David Eckstein,
Scott Spiezio, and
Adam Kennedy, as well as former Angels teammate
Jim Edmonds. Percival made his first appearance in the Majors since 2005 on June 29, 2007, against the
Cincinnati Reds. He struck out the first batter he faced,
David Ross, and was also credited with the
win.
Tampa Bay Rays On November 29, 2007, Percival signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the
Tampa Bay Rays. The contract contained up to $4 million in performance-based incentives. Percival was the team's primary closer in . On May 22, 2009, a day after allowing two runs in of an inning against the
Oakland Athletics, Percival was placed on Tampa Bay's disabled list. On August 11, he announced that he was likely to retire, and would cease his attempts at coming back from his injury. ==Coaching career==