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Salvador Perez’s incredible Royals career sets him up for return to the MLB playoffs

VaselineOctober 1, 2024

0 7 minutes read

Salvador Perez’s incredible Royals career sets him up for return to the MLB playoffs

The Kansas City captain, nine-time MLB All-Star and 2015 World Series champion, is on the path to the Hall of Fame.

This story has been updated to add new information.

He has the accomplishments worthy of a Hall of Famer, and the esteem of his peers better befits the status of elder and icon, thanks to his achievements and good works, on two continents.

Yet Salvador Pérez is still only 34 years old, still one of the greatest catchers in baseball, still producing at a rate more befitting a younger man, and returning to the postseason stage for the first time in a decade the match.

Pérez, the mainstay of the Kansas City Royals and increasingly filling that role for baseball players from his native Venezuela, is far from done. But in his advanced professional years, he has learned to embrace the role of example, whether in his clubhouse, his home country or his adopted hometown, where he leans most toward a hosting role.

“It’s always good when people try to be like you,” says Pérez. “Especially for your country.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the Royals return to the postseason in Game 1 of the American League wild-card series in Baltimore, their first appearance since winning the 2015 World Series. Pérez, then 25, was Most Valuable Player of that fall classic, batted .364 with an .846 OPS and drove in the tying run during the Royals’ dramatic ninth-inning rally in Game 5 at Citi Field in New York.

It’s a testament to Pérez’s staying power to reflect on where his contemporaries were that night.

Freddie Fermin, the Royals’ backup catcher, was just a 20-year-old watching the game with other minor league hopefuls at the franchise’s academy in the Dominican Republic.

Seth Lugo, now a veteran of nine Major League seasons and the Royals’ Game 2 Wild Card starter, was at the Mets’ minor league facility in Port St. Lucie, where he was coming off a Class AAA season. back and hoped against hope that his organizational mates could push him to push the Royals to a Game 6. In 2024, Lugo won 16 games and led the Major Leagues with 204⅔ innings pitched.

Perez? He’s been here the whole time, through three consecutive 100-loss seasons for the Royals and an ownership change.

It doesn’t matter.

“It feels like yesterday,” says Pérez.

‘He always gives us an extra hand’

Maybe that’s because his fellow champions are never too far behind his string of text messages. Ask Pérez which ’15 Royals he keeps in touch with and it sounds like a recitation of that team’s baseball reference page.

Lucas Hochevar. Erik Hosmer. Lorenzo Cain. Jarrod Dyson. Mike Moustakas. Danny Duffy. Wade Davis. Greg Holland. The trainers, various position coaches, manager Ned Yost – Pérez keeps them all within reach.

Between Friday, when the Royals clinched a playoff berth, and Monday, when the club practiced at Camden Yards, Perez’s phone pinged frequently. Hosmer. Moustakas. Cain.

“They are all super excited,” Perez said Monday.

Perez leaves a similar impression among peers who cross his path.

Pérez’s home in Kansas City serves as a way station for ballplayers hungry for friendship and a good meal. It is there that Pérez’s mother, Yilda, cooks delicacies for his many visitors.

For the past three years, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander has considered Pérez a close friend, enjoying Yilda’s empanadas and Pérez’s guidance.

“All the experience he has, the time he has in the league, and he’s a very good person,” said Santander, who has 44 home runs to his name this season and will likely hit third for the Orioles in this series. “In addition to what he does on the field, he is also a great person off the field. He’s there trying to help you get better.

“He always gives us an extra hand to keep moving forward.”

Pérez takes his role as a beacon for Venezuelan players seriously and realizes that he is following in the footsteps of Luis Aparicio, Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and others. He describes his dinner guests in Kansas City as a virtual rainbow coalition of baseball players — Venezuelans, Dominicans, American-born players, bonds forged over the years.

In Venezuela, however, his impact is never forgotten.

Veteran Major League infielder Juan Yepez was 16 years old and played with Pérez’s winter ball team, the Tiburones de La Guaira. Pérez was a 24-year-old just starting out in the major leagues.

“I remember his hands were huge. I was a 16-year-old kid and just said, ‘Hey, nice to meet you, and whoa, this guy is strong,'” Yepez says of a player who has hit 273 career home runs, 10th all-time among catchers .

“He is a perfect example of working hard and being successful in the best baseball in the world and continuing to get better.”

The examples resonate even more deeply for catchers.

Washington Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz considers Pérez a neighbor in their Venezuelan hometown of Valencia and became fast friends after meeting just a few years ago. Pérez’s example has resonated with Ruiz for more than a decade, but perhaps even more so as Ruiz, now 26, approaches the midpoint of his own career.

“He inspires me to play baseball,” Ruiz said in the second year of an eight-year, $50 million contract. “To me, he’s a Hall of Famer. He has made Venezuela happy and everyone is proud of what he has achieved both on and off the field.

“A lot of kids want to be just like him. I was in that position. I know.”

Pérez remains an offensive force, hitting 27 home runs and posting a .786 OPS, ranking top among AL catchers and second behind Milwaukee’s William Contreras. The only concession to his age is the games he plays at first base or design hitter: 49 and 24 starts, respectively.

Still, that opens a path for Fermin, who rose from a 20-year-old kid in the Royals’ academy to a player in his third year as Pérez’s backup.

“I always say that it is an honor for me to stand next to him,” says Fermin, 29 years old and from Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela. “I’m learning as much as I can about baseball, or anything outside of the game. It is an honor to stand next to him.

“When I saw them on TV playing in the World Series, I was so excited. And now I stand next to him.”

And what exactly does Pérez mean for Venezuelan ballplayers?

“Example. Discipline,” says Fermin. “Anything can happen. We can control what we can control.

“But he works hard no matter what.”

“He’s been here his entire adult life.”

Pérez’s work ethic is legendary, lingering in the weight room after games for workouts and guarding his 6-3, 255-pound body against the ravages of time. He is the de facto leader on the Venezuelan World Baseball Classic team.

For the Royals, he is the de facto captain, having been named to that post before the 2023 season, a title that has been a decade in the making and has only been awarded to Hall of Famer George Brett.

“He always played. He plays about 150 games a year. Catching,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro, now in his second year. “What I’ve learned since I’ve been here is that he’s a great person. Extremely consistent in his attitude, also last year. The drive to win is something that is unparalleled.

“He works extremely hard. (Leadership) is natural. People respect him. They know what he has done, know what he has meant to the community, the organization.

“He’s been here his entire adult life.”

During that period, the Royals have experienced many more lean years than memorable ones. They lost 90 and 91 games in Pérez’s first two seasons before breaking through in 2013 with 86 wins. A young core that stuck together for years — Hosmer and Moustakas and Alex Gordon and now this young wedge of a catcher — was finally solidified in 2014. Kansas City went on a wild ride from the wild-card game to Game 7 of the World Series.

Pérez made it to the final of Game 7, an errant pop-out against Madison Bumgarner, with the tying run at third base.

A year later, they wouldn’t be denied again: Pérez drove in the tying run in the top of the ninth and singled to start the game-winning, five-run rally in the 12th inning of Game 5. Still, the Royals didn’t finish above . .500 since then, and Pérez would miss the 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

How does a respected veteran remain determined in the face of so much futility, including a 106-loss campaign in Quatraro’s first season?

“That we have a chance,” says Pérez, who has three children with his wife Maria Gabriela. “Baseball – it’s about opportunity. Everyone will have difficult moments in this game.

“I think my family motivates me. My teammates – playing for the city of Kansas City. Play hard, every day, no matter what.”

Despite their 106 losses in 2023, the Royals were talking about an AL Central championship during spring training. That goal was not achieved, but they achieved the second best score.

“I think we learned from that. I love baseball – because we have opportunities every day. But I try to think positive every time. And I thank God again that we made the playoffs.”

Perez himself feels a lot of appreciation. For the third time in four years, Pérez has been nominated by the Royals for the Roberto Clemente Award, the most prestigious philanthropic honor in baseball.

His contributions from the diamond extend to both continents, donating $1 million to a Royals youth academy while also providing equipment for his youth league in Venezuela. His off-field charity work extends not only to Valencia, but also across the border to Colombia, where he has traveled to provide support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pérez has signed a pair of contract extensions in Kansas City, and his four-year, $82 million pact includes a club option for 2026. His .271/.330/.456 slash line is excellent for a catcher, but for the run-starved Royals his 104 RBI lifeblood, coupled with the 109 RBI of MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr. to provide the majority of their run production.

There are few signs of slowing down.

“He still has a lot of gas,” said Santander of the Orioles. “He looks great.”

That includes the Royals: They’ll lean on young lefty Cole Ragans in Game 1, followed by Lugo and, if necessary, Michael Wacha in Game 3. The winner of the series gets a trip to Yankee Stadium, where the Yankees to wait.

And for Perez, it would be a return to the city where he left the postseason stage as a champion. Not necessarily a bookend: Perez still has a lot of baseball ahead of him. But the potential to add another chapter to an already special career.

“He’s a Hall of Famer,” Ragans said. ‘I learned so much from him. Trust him.

“He’s incredible. And I look forward to seeing Salvy after the season.”

Lacques reported from Baltimore and Washington

VaselineOctober 1, 2024

0 7 minutes read