The Royals sat atop the mountain, and Salvy shined brightest among the game’s stars
On a Kansas City Royals team that thrived on getting crucial contributions from anywhere and everywhere, All-Star catcher Salvador Perez fittingly took home the 2015 World Series MVP in a unanimous vote.
Perez, then 25-year-old native of Venezuela who’d originally signed as an international free agent, had the most consistent influence on the crowning achievement of a 30-year period of the franchise’s history.
He registered the highest batting average (.364) and tied Alex Gordon for the highest on-base percentage (.391) of any Royals player who appeared in all five games of that World Series. Perez also guided a pitching staff that posted a 2.94 ERA in the 2015 Series and held the Mets to four runs or fewer in four of its five games.
“That moment is something I’m going to never forget,” Perez said of being informed by an MLB official in the middle of the celebration that he’d been selected as the World Series MVP.
Perez became the seventh catcher in MLB history to win the award and the second Venezuelan-born Series MVP (Pablo Sandoval, 2012).
Perez, who batted seventh in the Royals’ American League ballpark with the designated hitter in the lineup and sixth in the Mets’ National League park, went 8-for-22 with two doubles, two RBIs and three runs scored.
“He has always hit good pitching, which is the staple of a guy’s career,” former Royals hitting coach and current scout Dale Sveum said. “With a good hitter, it’s, ‘Did he hit good pitching, or did he just take advantage of the fourth and fifth starters and hit home runs when you’re up by five or down by five late in games, when the black hole pitcher is in or whatever?’
“Salvy always had that knack for being a big-time hitter for a catcher who is big and has to catch every single day like he does and the energy he brings.”
Sveum described Perez’s aggressive approach at the plate as that of a poor man’s Vladimir Guerrero because of both players’ uncanny ability to put the bat on the ball even when seemingly off-balance or swinging at a pitch outside of the strike zone.
That gift helped create one of the most memorable plays in the Series. With the Royals trailing in the ninth inning of the clinching Game 5, Perez’s broken-bat grounder toward third set in motion the gutsy base-running decision by Eric Hosmer that changed the game.
Hosmer broke for home after David Wright threw across the diamond to first base. The force-out at first was the second out of the inning. Hosmer would either tie the score or get thrown out at home to end the game.
He forced an off-target throw from Mets first baseman Lucas Duda and scored to send the game into extra innings.
Perez also hit a leadoff single that started the five-run 12th inning that sealed the Royals’ World Series title.
“Every time Salvy steps to the plate, he’s the guy that something really big could happen because he’s got the ability to do those things with his mechanics and his hand-eye coordination,” Sveum said.
Handling the staff
Behind the plate, Perez caught all but the final inning of the Series. He came out for a pinch-runner after his single in the top of the 12th.
He was one of the first Royals to burst out of the dugout toward the pitcher’s mound when the final out had been recorded.
With the exception of that one inning, he called every pressure-packed pitch as the Royals held the Mets to a slash line of .193/.254/.298 for the Series.
Today, Perez takes more pride in his work with the pitching staff on the sport’s most intense stage than what he did at the plate.
“Being behind home plate is not as easy as people think, the concentration,” Perez said. “To be behind home plate is one of my favorite things.”
He did it with a very different pitching staff than the one that went to the World Series the previous fall.
Only one Royals starting pitcher, Yordano Ventura, carried over from the previous World Series. The starters in 2014 against the San Francisco Giants were James Shields, Jeremy Guthrie, Jason Vargas and Ventura. In 2015 against the Mets, Edison Volquez, Johnny Cueto, Chris Young and Ventura started.
While Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera, Danny Duffy were key figures out of the bullpen in both ‘14 and ‘15, the World Series relief corps the first time around featured Tim Collins, Greg Holland, Jason Frasor and Brandon Finnegan; the title-winning group the next season included Luke Hochevar, Ryan Madson, Kris Medlen and Franklin Morales.
Perez play his part a key cog in the lineup. But he also was a conduit through which the pitching staff excelled.
“I think all of our guys in ‘14 and ‘15 realize that you give yourself up for the greater cause of the club,” Royals catching coach Pedro Grifol said. “I think all of our guys realized that once we got into postseason the mindset changed to where, ‘Whatever it takes to help the Kansas City Royals win a baseball game.’”
“If you make it about what the club needs right now, it takes the pressures of the game and the anxiety of the game away because you’re playing for something else. You’re playing for your club. You’re playing for your team. You’re playing for the situation in front of you.”
