The Royals announced Friday that catcher Salvador Perez has been reinstated from the injured list. Infielder Emmanuel Rivera was optioned to Triple-A Omaha to open a spot on the roster.
It’s a remarkably swift turnaround for the veteran Perez, who underwent surgery on June 24 to repair a torn ligament in his thumb. At the time of the surgery, manager Mike Matheny told reporters that doctors expected Perez to require about eight weeks to mend from the surgery. Instead, he’s back on the big league roster after exactly five weeks and having appeared in just three minor league rehab games (during which he went 4-for-8 with a double).
Perez, 32, is playing out the first season of a four-year, $82MM contract extension that stands as the largest contract in Royals franchise history. The seven-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner had a season for the ages in 2021 when he slugged a league-leading 48 homers and plated an MLB-best 121 runs, but the pendulum has swung in the other direction thus far in 2022. It’s been arguably the worst offensive season of Perez’s career, as he’s slashed just .211/.254/.426 through his first 236 trips to the plate.
Of course, the thumb issue that required surgical repair could well have played into those doldrums at the plate. Perez first went on the injured list in early May with what the team termed a sprain in his thumb, and while he returned in just three weeks’ time, he was back on the injured list and headed for surgery less than a month later.
The hope for both Perez and the Royals is that the newly mended thumb will bring about a return to form. No one should be surprised if Perez never matches his incredible 2021 output — it’s unrealistic to expect anyone, let alone a catcher with Perez’s workload to replicate those numbers — but there’s obviously quite a bit of room for improvement over his early scuffles at the dish.
Why is Rivera getting sent down? He’s been doing good. Should’ve been Garcia.
And their slap hitting gold glove caliber middle infielder (Lopez) is playing 3B. Just Dayton/Matheny things.
Because Garcia can play shortstop and Nicky Lopez who has been playing shortstop and Bobby Witt Junior who has been playing shortstop were both on the bench with minor injuries (Bobby dealing with a hamstring and I think Nicky was hit in the ribs?). And they just brought Maikel Garcia up after they traded Andrew Benintendi. they needed somebody to take Benintendi spot & Maikel Garcia was already on the 40 man.
Why is Rivera getting sent down? He’s been doing well. Should’ve sent down Garcia.
Last year was definitely an aberration. I’d love to see him get 40+ HRs again but he’s funds have to stop catching.
How do you go from “I get it”
to “I don’t understand it”
One of the biggest dosey doe I’ve ever experienced.
Trade him. Why not?
Melendez DHs more. Probably be good for him.
Steve Adams is a genius. He has found that it will be very hard for Salvy to hit 40 homers again.
He missed 32 games so likely he won’t get back to 40 home runs but he got a home run in last night’s loss to the Yankees in fact gave us the lead and we had a nice two run lead for almost 3 whole innings. There is still August and September and like five games in October because of the start of the season being delayed a week because they lock out so he could still get in the mid 20s for home runs. I was glad to see our captain back in the lineup last night even if we did lose because of the bullpen.