For their careers Gomes and Perez absolutely were better, but I think you're forgetting how badly Gomes and Perez (and Gimenez) absolutely sucked the year the Indians went the World Series.
Gomes 34 OPS+ in 264 plate appearances, -1.0 oWar, 0.7 dWar
Perez 52 OPS+ in 184 plate appearances, 0.0 oWar, 1.0 dWar
Gimenez 57 OPS+ in 155 plate appearances, -0.2 oWar, 0.0 dWar
-1.2 combined oWar, 1.7 combined dWar
Hedges 48 OPS+ in 316 plate appearances, -0.6 oWar, 1.2 dWar
Maile 82 OPS+ in 188 plate appearances, 0.6 oWar, 0.4 dWar
0.0 combined oWar, 1.6 combined dWar
About as close to a wash as you can get. I give Perez credit for hitting 3 home runs in the playoffs that year, but overall he was 8 for 43 in 15 playoff games.