Salvador Perez will remain in Kansas City for at least another two seasons. The Royals announced an extension with the nine-time All-Star that covers the 2026-27 campaigns. It’s reportedly a $25MM guarantee for the Beverly Hills Sports Council client, though it actually amounts to $23MM in new money. Perez had been guaranteed a $2MM buyout on a $13.5MM club option for the upcoming season.
There’s a decent amount of deferred money that reduces the net present value. Perez receives a $7MM signing bonus that will be paid in annual installments between 2030-34. He makes $9MM salaries for the next two seasons, with $2.5MM annually deferred until 2030-34. The Royals will only pay Perez $13MM during the next two years. Meanwhile, the decent-sized signing bonus ensures he’d get that money even if a work stoppage threatens players’ salaries in 2027.
General manager J.J. Picollo said at the end of September that the Royals would bring Perez back, though he left open the possibility of a new contract rather than simply exercising the option. That’s indeed how things played out. Teams and players have until Thursday to decide on all option decisions. That presumably served as an unofficial deadline for the Royals and Perez to get a new deal in place. The deferrals save the Royals $7MM next year compared to the option value, while the catcher locks in more money down the line with some protection against a lockout.
Perez, 36 in May, is headed into his 15th full season in the big leagues. He’s obviously one of the most accomplished players in team history and seems likely to be a Royal for life. He’s seventh in franchise history in games played and trails only George Brett in both home runs and runs batted in. Perez isn’t going to make up the nearly 600 RBI he’d need to run down Brett, but he should become the franchise’s home run leader next season barring a significant injury. He has 303 longballs, placing him 14 behind the Hall of Famer’s career total.
A healthy Perez should still easily hit 15+ homers in 2026. He drilled 30 round-trippers this year and has eclipsed 20 homers in all but one full schedule dating back to 2014. The lone exception was the ’19 season which he missed due to Tommy John surgery. Perez trailed only Cal Raleigh, Shea Langeliers and Hunter Goodman in home runs among primary catchers this past season. Raleigh is the only other catcher who drove in at least 100 runs.
While Perez remains a legitimate power threat, the flaws in his game are equally well known. He has never been a patient hitter, and he’s coming off his third sub-.300 OBP in the past four seasons. Perez hit .236/.284/.446 across 641 trips to the plate. The overall slash line is a little worse than league average despite the gaudy homer and RBI tallies. It is still strong production from the catcher position, but Perez has begun to branch out to first base or designated hitter a little more often as he has gotten into his mid-30s.
The five-time Gold Glove winner still has a plus arm and did an excellent job shutting down the running game. Pitch framing metrics have panned his receiving work throughout his career. That remained the case in 2025. Statcast also graded him as the second-worst blocking catcher in the sport, better only than Marlins’ rookie Agustín Ramírez (who somehow committed 19 passed balls in 73 games).
There’s very little chance that Wins Above Replacement models are going to look favorably on this deal. Both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference had Perez only marginally above replacement this year. The Royals have long valued the player a lot more highly than public advanced metrics would suggest. He has always been a revered clubhouse presence and fan favorite, and he won the Roberto Clemente award in 2024 for his contributions in the community (both in Kansas City and his native Venezuela). He served as the bridge between their 2015 World Series team and the ’24 club that returned to the playoffs after a nine-year drought.
They weren’t able to get to October this past season. A lack of offense and some late-season rotation injuries combined to drop them to an 82-80 record. Perez will be back as the primary catcher and should split first base/DH work with Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone. The Royals will want to work rookie Carter Jensen into the mix more frequently behind the dish. The 22-year-old was called up in September after K.C. traded longtime backup Freddy Fermin to the Padres at the deadline. Jensen hit .300 with three homers in his first 20 games, an impressive follow-up to a .290/.377/.501 season at Triple-A Omaha.
The Royals have around $140MM in estimated commitments for next season, according to RosterResource. Perez joins Bobby Witt Jr. ($19MM), Seth Lugo ($20MM), Michael Wacha ($14MM) and Cole Ragans ($7.5MM) as their players with contracts for 2027. They’re also locked in to at least a $2MM buyout on a club option for Carlos Estévez.
Anne Rogers of MLB.com first reported the $25MM guarantee, the $7MM bonus, and the presence of deferrals. The Associated Press had the specific deferral structure. Image courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images.
Royals legend
Easily the greatest Royals Catcher of all time.
Top 5 easy. Greatest all time is close with
Berra 3x MVP 10 WS 18x Allstar
Bench 2x MVP 2 WS 14x Allstar 10 GG ROY
Pudge MVP 1 WS 14x Allstar 13 GG 7x SS
Piazza .303 career and 427 HR 10x SS
13x Allstar ROY
All HOF and Perez will be right there with them. 5 GG 9 Allstars 5 SS.
Fisk, Posey and Carter can give Perez a challenge for that top 5 also.
I look at it generationally and for right now, Perez leads his peers and hold numbers next to the all time catchers.
Doesn’t take much
Love how not one complaint about contract deferrals, but if the Dodgers did it you would never hear the end of it.
Big difference between deferrals on 25 million on 1 player versus the deferrals the dodgers made on multiple players.
And the royals aren’t using it to lower the luxury tax hit. Going to assume these deferrals aren’t 34/35 of the contract. Also came with a signing bonus, opposite of deferred money
I’d assume its because its $25M and not $1B+ in deferrals. Just a guess
And a guy that has spent his whole career there and isn’t a mercenary purchase on top of rhe rest of an all star team. Royals have to do it to afford their own guy and leave a little room for raises and a fringe pickup. Dodgers do it because they print money and have insanely unfair advantages based on their market.
Dude the Dodgers deferrals are about tax avoidance. The Royals are not luxury tax payor threats.
Cool.
Will be an interesting HOF debate once he retires
He’s definitely a HOF
His career WAR is right in the HOPG sweet spot. “Definitely a HOF” is a stretch.
He is 32nd in catcher JAWS, surrounded by non-HOFers and two dubious HOFers. And bWAR ignores framing, his worst defensive feature.
Jorge Posada had a pretty good career and well ahead on JAWS and he was one and done on HOF ballot. I doubt Salvy gets in via writers’ vote.
Catcher is the worst producing position compared to the other positions in all of sports. World series MVP, being a career Royal, and all of his gold gloves should help his case. He was a top 3 or 4 player in the Royals lineup his whole career too compared to Posada being just a guy on stacked rosters.
Posada — one of the “Core Four”, wasn’t “just a guy”. Perez’ best season was when he led the league with 48 HRs, and 148 RBIs, worth 5.3 bWAR. Posada had three seasons with a higher WAR than that. People might disagree about whether Posada was better than Perez, but calling him just a guy is inaccurate.
9 All Star games, 5 Gold Gloves, 5 Silver Sluggers, over 300 Home Runs and counting, 1000+ RBI’s and counting, and the media loves him. Salvy is definitely getting elected to the Hall of Fame
Sanchez breaking his HR record hurt his case, and he was much more than just a guy statistics wise. The problem is he hit in the bottom 3rd or half of the lineup for his entire career and that hurt his HOF case even more. MLB HOF is supposed to be the toughest to get into and the Yankees already have multiple teams worth of HOFers in vs just a few Royals. At the very least he should be the HOF floor for Perez and that’s a much better comparison than Kendall was commented below.
@Antibelt he isn’t as good as Kendall and he’s not a HOFer.
He’s WAY better than Kendall 303>75 HR and 9 Allstars vs 3.
I think Salvador Perez makes the HOF if he plays four more solid seasons and reaches 390 to 400 homers, but his low WAR might keep him out if he retires after 2027 with say 350 home runs.
If Perez and Posey get in, you gotta put Munson in the HoF. Have to.
Perez just had a ‘solid season’ for him with 30 HRs and 100 RBIs. That was worth 0.4 bWAR. Four more years like that (sort of doubtful in his late thirties), brings him to 37 bWAR, far short of Munson, Posey or Yadier Molina. And Salvi already has over a thousand more plate appearances than Munson or Posey (though far less than Molina). Given his long, well respected career with the Royals, Perez brings a lot to the team that isn’t counted in WAR, including putting fans in the seats, which shouldn’t be discounted. And the Royals should be credited for paying for that. But I don’t see him making the Hall, and I’m pretty sure this is a much better contract than any other team would offer.
100% Bronx , he’s had a great career for his team but not quite HoF worthy imo, if he gets in all good. Exactly the type of career teams retire a jersey for
@antibelt
I’m relieved that you aren’t part of the voting process.
He’s definitely a HOF.
I don’t think it’s too interesting if he makes the Hall of Fame I have no respect for the Hall of Fame. Hall of Awesome he played pretty good for one organization sure he can make that.
Royals HOF for sure. MLB HOF, nope. Same as Yadi Molina. Team great, not all time great.
Fruigi
You don’t know baseball history.
Yadira Molina is a ten time All-Star, with nine gold gloves and four platinum gloves. He is a shoe-in by the second ballot.
Buster Posey is very likely.
Salvador Perez is borderline, needs just a little more. Like Posey, he is a former MVP.
Thurman Muncy is only a two-time all-star and only makes it if you believe that his tragic death justifies offsetting the shortness of his career.
All amazing players, but I laugh at the take that Yadira Molina is not an all-time great.
Yadi is a lock for HOF
Yadi is hof’er
10as,9gg,4 ws appearances,2 rings
Theres lots of guys whose #s arent sexy but the overall achievements warrant hof induction. Keith hernandez, kenny lofton, yadi molina
@LFruigi – Yadi getting selected to the Royals HOF seems like a stretch.
There are better hitting catchers than him who aren’t in the hall of fame. If Jorge Posada, Thurman Munson, Brian McCann, and Jason Kendall can’t make the cut, there’s no reason to assume Perez will.
Why only an 0.4 WAR last season?
Low obp, bad “pitch framing”, and bad blocking skills. I don’t buy the 0.4 but he has big holes in his game. I just don’t agree with pitch framing weighting him down so when it cannot be an exact science to measure that. He’s probably a hall of famer eventually.
.284 obp. I don’t believe bWAR includes framing. fWAR does but gives him about the same value.
Batting average, .OPS and .OBP were pretty bad
Nice to see. Good for Salvy.
So this probably sets the floor for JT Realmuto?
Salvy has the better bat and there’s some sentimentality behind his signing. I’m guessing the under for JTR.
How so? JTR has better oWAR in 4 of the past 5 seasons and JTR is certainly the better defender. Not to mention a year yougner. I’m guessing that JTR beats this figure.
Good. Playing two more years on his way to the Hall of Fame.
Agreed. The Hall isn’t watered down enough yet.
JT Realmuto must be applauding right now.
Anywhere else would be weird.
I think the relationship guys like Perez have with home fans is much more meaningful than in other sports.
Love seeing him stay in KC. One day they’ll retire his number.
It’s very good for the sport that a team like the Royals has a franchise player that will likely play his whole career in one uniform and has been and continues to be paid relatively top dollar for what he brings to the game.
Darn….he and Kirk would have an interesting platoon in Toronto….
Good move
Deferrals, everyone can do it.
15 seasons as a catcher hats off to you
Perez seems like a player destined to be a manager when he’s done. I assume KC is probably grooming him for a coaching position once he retires.
Two years? I assume they’ll be moving him to 1b or DH full-time? I know he still hits decently, but he’s rough behind the plate.
Usually WAR makes sense to me, but it’s cases like this where it doesn’t. I get all the sabermetrics, but there’s a disconnect when a guy like Perez hits 35 doubles, 30 HR, drives in 100 runs and is worth 0.4 bWAR. He is worth only 0.4 WAR above a replacement player? How is that possible?
Obviously replacement players hit 30HRs. If they could hit more they wouldn’t be replacements
Defense is the biggest part of the answer: 1.6 oWAR, -1.0 dWAR. And remember WAR takes into account your position, and he played about 40% of his games at DH and 1B where a replacement player is expected to hit — he was presumably well below replacement level at DH and 1B, and well above replacement during his games catching. Then there’s the low OBP, no triples to pad the SLG, and I strongly suspect Salvy doesn’t measure well on any baserunning metrics.
All this talk of HOF & Salvy’s WAR…I haven’t seen any mention of how he’s likely to be primarily a DH over these two years now with Carter Jensen here (AND Blake Mitchell on the way)…?