Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez turning in an elite season for any MLB catcher
Last year’s pandemic-shortened season technically served as Salvador Perez’s bounce-back year. He missed 2019 following Tommy John surgery, and won a Silver Slugger, All-MLB First Team honors and MLB.com’s AL Comeback Player of the Year award in 2020.
In his first full season back on the diamond with a traditional schedule and 162-game slate, the 31-year-old Perez has turned 2021 into a coast-to-coast reminder that he’s still among the best all-around catchers in the majors.
Earlier this summer, he started his sixth All-Star Game (seventh appearance) and made an appearance in the MLB Home Run Derby.
Perez continued to hammer that point home as he pounded his 30th home run of the season on Sunday afternoon. He launched a two-run blast 450 feet and into the left field fountain at Kauffman Stadium as he continued to produce one of the elite power-hitting seasons of any catcher in major-league history.
“Thirty is a big number for anybody at any position,” said Royals manager Mike Matheny, a former four-time Gold Glove-winning catcher. “We all understand the demands of that position, in particular, and how he goes about playing that position. For him to have the kind of season that he has had so far with still a lot of time left, puts him in a very special category.”
Perez enters this week tied for the fourth-most home runs in the majors. He passed his previous single-season career high of 27 home runs last week with his fourth multi-homer game of the season on Tuesday.
He’s the 13th Royal to hit 30 homers in a season, and Sunday’s home run also gave him 400 career extra-base hits. He’s seven extra-base hits shy of his former teammate Billy Butler for eighth place in franchise history.
“The year that I missed from my Tommy John was a lot of frustration,” Perez said. “I don’t see myself out of baseball. That year was super hard for me, not to play one game. I think it’s part of life. I just prepared myself, working hard, trying to do the best (I can). Thank God for this year, keeping me healthy. Hopefully we continue like that and finish the season strong.”
A strong finish could put Perez among the top home run-hitting seasons in club history. He’s currently on pace for 42 home runs, which would give him the second-highest single-season total in franchise history behind Jorge Soler’s 48 homers in 2019.
Getting to 42 home runs would also give Perez the third-highest total by anyone who played at least 75% of his games as a catcher. In that group, Johnny Bench (45 homers in 1970) and Javy López (43 homers in 2003) have hit the most.
“If I’m healthy, I’m going to play,” Perez said. “I’m going to play every day. I think the opportunities come when you play, when you have that chance. Hopefully, I can hit more. Still one month and a half.”
Perez has missed one game this season. That came because of illness, and he still would have played if it were up to him. However, the Royals didn’t allow him to attend the game because of COVID concerns and protocols.
So far this season, Perez has started 115 games (89 at catcher, 26 at designated hitter). He set his career-high for games played, 150, in 2014. He started a career-high 143 games at catcher in 2014.
A five-time Gold Glove winner, Perez enters this week having thrown out an MLB-best 40.6% of attempted base stealers.
He also leads all catchers in runs prevented by blocking balls in the dirt, according to Baseball Prospectus’ pitch blocking statistics.
That’s one top of leading all qualified catchers in batting average (.277), slugging percentage (.521), RBIs (75) and, of course, home runs.
“It means a lot. It’s one of my dreams to try to hit 30 homers in one season,” Perez said. “I thank God for that. All the hard work I put in in the offseason, trying to get a little bit (stronger), working with (special assignment hitting coach) Mike Tosar, calling (major-league hitting coach) Terry Bradshaw to help me with my swing, working with (bench coach/catching coach) Pedro (Grifol) and all that.
“It’s good, bad that we lost today but, personally, that’s one of my dreams. I wanted to do it.”
