Kansas City Royals place star catcher and slugger Salvador Perez on the injured list
.JPG "Royals catcher Salvador Perez played the hero in the ninth inning of Sunday’s game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver.")
Salvador Perez left the Royals’ doubleheader opener against the White Sox on Tuesday afternoon because of a left thumb sprain he suffered while swinging the bat.
The injury landed him on the 10-day IL, and he’s optimistic to return in as little time as possible.
“It’s the inside of my thumb, a grade 2 (sprain),” Perez said. “The ligament got turned. I just need some time off. Hopefully, it’s just 10 days. (Head trainer Kyle Turner) told me maybe it’s going to be four to six weeks, at least 21 days. It’s grade 2. Grade 3 is maybe having surgery. Hopefully, I can get better soon and get back to the field. You know how much I love to play. It’s kind of hard, but it’s something I don’t have control of. It’s kind of hard.”
Perez repeatedly reiterated his hope that he’d only miss 10 days.
Perez, who was the designated hitter for the first game of the doubleheader, was pulled for pinch-hitter Carlos Santana during the Royals’ eventual 3-0 loss with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning. Santana struck out.
Perez played in each of the first 34 games this season. He has batted .206 with a team-best six home runs and was tied for the team lead in RBIs (16).
Between games of the doubleheader, the Royals recalled catcher Sebastian Rivero from Double-A.
Rookie catcher MJ Melendez, who caught the first game, started at catcher for the second game of the doubleheader.
“We’ve been very clear that we keep him as part of the decision,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We were very fortunate we had our hand specialist in here today. He was able to go get the pictures and come back and give us the report and then kind of give us the, ‘Hey, this is how this could go.’
“When the time comes for him to potentially come off, we’ll give it a really good look. I mean, it took us a while to get a lineup out because he knows he’s got a sprain, but he wanted to play. He knew he could play through it. The issue is what are we risking here. We don’t want to risk a season-ending injury if it gets worse. I love it. I love how he fights to play regardless of all the stuff he’s going through, and he’s got some stuff. He’s a warrior.”
Perez had already been dealing with a knee ailment during the previous road trip, and earlier in the season he’d hurt his hand during a series in Seattle.
According to Bally Sports Kansas City’s Dave Holtzman, Melendez became the first Royals catcher to start both ends of a doubleheader since Henry Mercedes on Aug. 21, 1995 at Milwaukee.
Melendez caught all 18 innings of the doubleheader and got his first major-league home run in the second game.
Perez said the injury occurred during his first at-bat of the game when he struck out swinging against White Sox starter Dylan Cease.
“The slider down and away for a ball, I tried to hit that ball, chase that pitch, and I think my batting glove got stuck up on bat and took me to the worst position,” Perez said. “That happened to me in 2018. It was the outside. Now, it’s the inside part.”
A concern with the injury is that it’s on Perez’s glove hand, which he uses on every pitch behind the plate. He said he went to the cage before the second game to try it out.
“Hitting still bothered me, but I can make something, maybe, hard and put it on my finger,” Perez said. “Catching was the worst thing. Catching was a lot of pain. I feel (bad) about MJ Melendez, before the game. After the game, I’m happy for him. He got his first homer.”
Perez entered this year coming off of a season during which he played in a career-high 161 games and started a major-league most 120 games at catcher.
A five-time Gold Glove winner, Perez was the most productive hitter in their lineup last season and had one of the best offensive seasons for a catcher in major-league history and became the sixth player in the last 30 years to lead the majors in both home runs (48) and RBIs (121), joining Giancarlo Stanton (2017), Chris Davis (2013), Miguel Cabrera (2012), Ryan Howard (2006, 2008), and Álex Rodríguez (2002, 2007).
In 2021, Perez tied the Royals’ single-season home-run record previously set by his friend and offseason training partner Jorge Soler (2019).
Perez’s 48 homers were the most in a season for a primary catcher (at least 75% of games played at catcher) in major-league history. He batted .273, and his .859 OPS was a career high for a full-length season, as was his .544 slugging percentage (10th-best in MLB).
He registered an OPS+ of 126. Perez surpassed the previous record of 45 homers by a catcher set by the Hall of Famer Johnny Bench in 1970. By leading the majors in both home runs and RBIs, Perez became just the second primary catcher to lead in both, the other having been Bench (1970 and ‘72).
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 4:14 PM.
