Veteran catcher Salvador Perez is the face of the Royals franchise, the last man standing from the club’s 2015 World Series team, and a nine-time All-Star with five Gold Gloves and five Silver Sluggers to his name. He’s one of the most important players in the organization’s history, and in that sense the 35-year-old’s legacy is already secure. That impenetrable legacy does little to help the Royals’ playoff odds in 2025, however, and in that regard Perez’s performance this year has been lacking. He’s hit just .218/.254/.324 across 46 games and 190 plate appearances so far in 2025. That leaves him with a wRC+ of just 57 and negative WAR according to both Baseball Reference and Fangraphs, and that’s in spite of a brief hot streak where he collected 14 hits (including eight doubles) in ten games from April 24 to May 6.
That sort of production just won’t cut it for a Royals club that has playoff aspirations. Their 27-22 record entering play today is enough to keep them in the thick of the Wild Card race, but the recent losses of both Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans from the front of their rotation will put more pressure than ever on the offense to score runs. Perez is typically a key part of that offense, and with other key cogs in the lineup like Vinnie Pasquantino and Jonathan India also struggling to produce early in the year, Perez remains as important as ever. Can he turn things around, or do the Royals have a tough decision to make this summer about a franchise legend’s playing time in a pennant race?
A look at the underlying metrics provides plenty of reason for optimism. The most glaring factor in Perez’s downturn in performance is his anemic .106 ISO, which would put him on par with the 2024 performances of light-hitting, contact-oriented bats like Nico Hoerner and Nolan Schanuel. That’s a worrisome comparison to make considering Perez averaged 30 homers per season from 2021 to 2024, but the good news is that all signs point to this power outage coming to an end sooner rather than later. Despite hitting just two home runs so far this year, Perez’s 13.0% barrel rate is actually his best since he smacked 48 bombs in 2021 and his 45.7% hard-hit rate is better than it was in either of the past two seasons. In fact, Perez’s barrel and hard-hit rates are almost identical to those of Pete Alonso this year.
That could make it easy to write off Perez’s lackluster performance so far this season as little more than a fluke that should correct itself in due time, and the Royals are surely hoping that’s the case. With that being said, there are at least some potential red flags in the veteran’s performance that are worth keeping an eye on. While Perez has never been a particularly well-disciplined hitter, his 22.6% strikeout rate and 4.2% walk rate are both trending in the wrong direction relative to his All-Star 2024 season. He’s also hitting slightly more balls on the ground with fewer line drives relative to last year. All four of those figures are well within the bounds of Perez’s career norms, however.
Perhaps the biggest reason for concern regarding Perez is his age. As a 35-year-old catcher, it would hardly be a surprise if he wasn’t as physically capable of maintaining peak performance across 162 games as he was in his younger days. Regular reps at first base and DH should help that somewhat, but it’s still worth noting that Perez has seen his offense take a turn for the worse when the calendar flips to July in each of the past two seasons. If that trend of Perez slowing down as the year progresses continues in 2025, he may be running out of time to turn his overall season numbers around despite the solid underlying metrics to this point in the year.
How do MLBTR readers think the rest of Perez’s 2025 campaign will play out? Will he bounce back to around where he’s been in recent years, as the underlying numbers suggest? Or has he struggled too deeply for too long in the first half to make up for a potential slowdown after the All-Star break? Have your say in the poll below:
Yes. He’s 35 and catchers have usually fallen off the cliff by now.
9x AS, 5x GG, ws champ, probly end up with over 300 hrs… hof worthy?
I think he should be in, but feel like he falls just short. Like always on the ballot, but never quite in, but maybe a veterans committee thing someday.
It’ll depend how fast Yadi gets in. If Molina gets in first or second ballot, that will help Perez.
He is a franchise icon and a well known commodity but definitely not a Hall Of Famer. Probably not even borderline, but do belongs in the hall of very good.
If buster posey gets in then Perez is a slam dunk
However, if posey doesn’t for a while that complicates things
But I think they all will get in first ballot because of Joe mauer
yes
Interesting case. He gets bonus points for playing for one team his whole career. He’s the face of the franchise in this era.
Probably more of a hall of very good.
9 All stars have little value when he’s been on a team that 8 out of every 10 seasons puts out a minor league roster. Someone has to go so it was him a bunch.
The 5 gold gloves and 5 silver sluggers are really good, no doubt. The World Series MVP is also a nice feather in his cap.
But after all this time, he’s still only amassed 34.1 career bWAR. The Hall doesn’t vote based on WAR, nor should they, but it’s a decent barometer of who will get in, and the bar is usually about 50.
Buster Posey got in with 45 career bWAR, but he played fewer seasons and had more additional accolades then Perez.
If Perez can get back to his previous form for a few more seasons, he might sneak in, but if this is him falling off a cliff right now, he hasn’t done enough.
The WAR bar is usually lower for catchers — probably around 40. His fWAR is less than 20, due to his poor framing (bWAR doesn’t factor that in), but voters probably don’t care about that.
Posey isn’t in yet. He will be first ballot. I think you’re thinking of Mauer.
Mauer 55 WAR. Posey will get in with 44.9-ish
My bad. I did a quick google search for a list of all star catchers to compare with Perez and Posey’s name came up.
He felt good enough but I didn’t remember him being in, but the list said so, so I went with it. Should have checked more closely.
Fun fact, If you search google for Hall of Fame catcher, Posey doesn’t come up, but if you search Hall of Fame catchers (with an S) he comes up on the list. Weird.
@Gwynning Not gloating, Gwynny. Not gonna gloat. Totally expect your Papis to bust into T-Mobile later in the year and serve up a 3 game shellacking to even up the Vedder Cup. M’s just caught them at an awkward time perhaps. What a series though! Curious to hear your perspective if you feel like sharing it my homey. Go Pads.
I was waiting to hear from u, Iggy!
Embarrassing ball. 3 runs in 3 games is testimony to your staff though! I would love to even it up in your house… but we’re gunna have to show up better than that! Good job M’s
Mauer accumulated roughly 20 of that WAR as 1B. I do think Mauer and Posey are excellent comparisons tho. Especially if Perez finishes career in KC. I think Posada is the other that should be mentioned here, 43 WAR on loaded teams.
Ultimately if his career value was measured today I seem as a bit shy of HOF. A few plus WAR seasons, I think would put him in.
Can he collect any WAR in the front office? Maybe net WAR of transactions his FO makes…. I kid of course.
Biggest problem with Royals is their OF production.
That’s why I had to mention loaded lineups Posada was in. That bolstered his WAR. With Posada not making it and Perez him I think would be a tough sell for HOF voters.
Catchers seem pretty under represented in HOF. Especially with what they contribute to the game. Offensive stats produce stars tho and catchers contributions game in and game out don’t all show up on stat sheets.
Home run Canuckleball! +1
binger- Ask yourself “Are Jason Kendall and Jorge Posada Hall of Fame worthy?” and that’s roundabout what you should probably think about Sal. Heck of a career, either way!
I think he falls short of HOF standards, even with the bar lowered to the level of Harold Baines. His top-3 similar players (according to BR) are Brian McCann, Javy Lopez and Jorge Posada… none of them are HOF worthy either. Lance Parrish also had a similar career statistically. It’s a no.
Salvy has a similar career to gary carter
Ya’ll too young to remember him
Carter was ws champ, 11x AS, 3x GG, .262 hitter, 324 hrs
Salvy .266, 275 hrs but if he sticks it out a couple more yrs his hr total will be close to carter
None of those other guys have a similar resume to salvy
No way.
No. Data indicates a good bounce back moving forward. If you play fantasy, he’s a buy-low candidate.
Already did! Good lookin’ out Lordy!
Royals owner and fans don’t want to win. They are 2 good hitters away from a qa contender
I know you’re just a troll, but what’s a qa contender?
Quebecois(a) contender
They are Asian and Québécois’s! As a team!
Naaaaah…. a 35 yr old catcher that played 158 games last year? He’ll bat .300 and steal 20 bases by season’s end
Bobby Witt is worried about having to carry this whole team on his back every night. How do you keep trotting Renfroe and Melendez out there every night?
Melendez got sent down a couple weeks back
Yes, because i drafted him for my fantasy team.
Ooo then that is not a lot of production for your catcher spot…
Father time’s career record is still 100 Billion-0
Salvy needs to be a full-time DH already. Take the pressures of Catching off of him and just let him hit
Only if he’s at risk.
You cannot outrun Father Time.
Take a look at the performances at age 35 by such Hall of Famers as Piazza, Berra, Bench and Campanella.
35 catcher years are the same as 40 for infielders.
He has a great career. But I don’t think he is a HOF. Maybe relegate him to pinch hitting several times a week. Call up Blake Mitchell he can’t be worse
Why? Just because he’s old doesn’t mean he’s a pinch hitter, he was literally all star last year
His rank among all catchers:
xBA – 5th xSLG – 3rd xWOBA – 5th
Crazy to think that back in the day, before advanced metrics were a “thing”, people would see Sal’s stats from this season and probably start asking questions like, “Should the Royals worry about Salvador Perez?”
Thank god for advancements in statistical analysis…
I’m not worried about Salvy. As a Tigers fan I’ve seen him struggle for a bit and then catch fire. He’ll finish with his career averages if not better.