A look back at the day Salvador Perez made his debut with the Kansas City Royals
Royals catcher Salvador Perez accomplished a lot in his first 10 years in Major League Baseball.
There are seven All-Star Game appearances, five Gold Glove awards, three Silver Sluggers, an epic performance in the 2021 All-Star Game Home Run Derby and the 2015 World Series MVP award.
Could we have seen this coming when Perez made his big-league debut on Aug. 10, 2011?
Maybe so.
Perez had a single in three at-bats against the Rays at Tropicana Field, hit a sacrifice fly that scored Johnny Giavotella and picked off a pair of base runners.
The debut came a few weeks earlier than expected. The Royals planned to call up Perez when rosters expanded in September 2011. But Brayan Peña went on paternity leave and Matt Treanor was not far removed from suffering a concussion.
And so, Perez found himself in the big leagues.
According to a story by former Royals beat writer Bob Dutton, Perez was left speechless when he got word of his promotion from Mike Jirschele, who was Triple-A Omaha’s manager at the time.
“I was so excited that I don’t know what I did at that moment,” Perez said. “But after that, I didn’t talk for two hours. I just sat in front of my locker. Everybody came by and asked, ‘Are you OK?’ I couldn’t say anything.”
Bally Sports Kansas City shared highlights of Perez from his first game, and here is that video from MLB.com:
This was the 2011 video MLB.com had of his debut, and it shows a bit more of all that Perez did that day:
Perez is still going strong and he hit two home runs Tuesday on the 10-year anniversary of his major-league debut.
