In record home run year, Salvador Perez keeps striving for right balance at the plate
He’s on pace for the most prolific home-run hitting season of any American League catcher, yet Salvador Perez’s demeanor hardly changes when he talks about taking another pitcher deep.
However, if you get Perez talking about drawing walks and it’s like you’ve given an unexpected gift to a small child. The joy and borderline giddy reaction is priceless.
A seven-time All-Star catcher with 10 years in the majors, five Gold Gloves and a World Series MVP, Perez treats walks like they’re precious memories.
When asked about walking five times in an eight-game span a week ago, the notoriously free-swinging Perez unleashed a belly laugh and said, “You guys know me. I’m super aggressive. It’s something I’m trying to learn.”
Perez, 31, went on to explain he’s trying to get better at not swinging at so many bad pitches. He called the fact that he’s been able to draw two walks in one game “amazing” as he held up two fingers and shook his head in bewilderment and added, “Oh my God.”
He has struck a remarkable balance between aggressiveness and patience. Following a grand slam in a 6-4 win Thursday night at Seattle, Perez’s 35 home runs were a single-season career high and were tied for the third-most in the majors this season. He’d also drawn 18 walks with eight having come in his last 18 games, and he’s also closing in on his career high (22) in that category.
The past two seasons coming off of a year he lost to Tommy John surgery, Perez has paid much greater attention to game planning against opposing pitchers and developing an approach for each at-bat with Royals hitting coach Terry Bradshaw.
“I try to make adjustments,” Perez said. “We have a plan right before the game, but if something changes during the game, it just depends on how they pitch you. How they got me out in the first at-bat or second at-bat. So you have an idea how they’re going to pitch you for the third at-bat.”
While he goes to the plate with a much better idea of what he’s looking for in particular counts or situations, it can serve as a double-edged sword.
He’s still aggressive, and he can still hit pitches outside of the strike zone a long way.
Whether it’s a fastball up and away or a changeup nearly on the ground such as the homer he hit last weekend in Wrigley Field off of Zach Davies with a “golf swing,” Perez is anything but passive.
“That’s good and that’s bad,” Perez said. “Sometimes you’re looking for a slider and it doesn’t matter where the slider is. I’m going to swing if I see the slider.”
Perez’s 135 strikeouts so far this season are also a career high.
The same approach that has created a lot of swing and miss also has Perez on pace for 45 home runs, which would rank second in franchise history behind Jorge Soler’s 48 home runs in 2019 as well as tie Johnny Bench’s major-league record set in 1970 for most by a catcher.
Royals manager Mike Mathey said traditional plate discipline standards simply might not apply to Perez, who has slashed .272/.309/.524 with 34 homers and 82 RBIs through 125 games.
“I think probably the answer really is he has a different strike zone than everybody else because his strike zone isn’t necessarily what’s going to be called balls and strikes,” Matheny said.
“His strike zone is: What can he get barrel to and hit hard? If he has a good awareness of the limits of that, then becomes more selective, I think he’d be on the right track.”
While Perez may laugh and exclaim that a walk is like going 1 for 1 at the plate, Matheny certainly isn’t a proponent of taking any aggressiveness away from Perez.
“The best approach that I’ve ever heard and makes the most sense is aggressive in your zone,” Matheny said. “... If he gets something in the zone where he can drive the ball — it might be a pitch that I couldn’t hit with a boat oar, but if he can get the barrel to it then it doesn’t matter. We’re not talking, necessarily, strike or ball. We’re talking aggressive in your zone.”
And when pitchers throw pitches far enough out of the zone that Perez won’t swing at, well, he’ll certainly be overjoyed to set a new career high in walks.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 9:48 PM.
