It’s somewhat of a miracle to still be writing about a Salvador Perez season in 2026. I really thought he was done after his 2023 season, when he was a below-average hitter with a negative fWAR. Remarkably, Perez bounced back with a great 2024, followed by a fine 2025 campaign. It was easy to believe that Perez could maintain at least his 2025 production and be a more than positive contributor to a playoff-bound Royals team. Instead, 2026 would be the season Father Time would finally catch up with the Royals legend.
Salvy agreed to a two-year, $25 million extension last offseason, keeping the captain in Kansas City. The highlight of his 2026 baseball season came before MLB play began. He was the captain of Team Venezuela, which won the World Baseball Classic in a thrilling and charged 3-2 game against the United States. I was cheering for the USA in the game, but was extremely happy for Perez and Maikel Garcia to get the chance to win that tournament and celebrate with their countrymen. The WBC remains awesome, and I hope it continues to grow in popularity.
Once the MLB season started, things were much less exciting for Perez and the Royals. Just like last season, Perez got off to a very slow start at the plate. Unlike last season, his Statcast peripherals supported his poor results. Through the All-Star break, the veteran had a .595 OPS, which was 41% below league average. Despite his struggles, Salvy was in the lineup nearly every day. He didn’t catch for a while because his hip was bothering him, but he continued to play most days despite his terrible numbers.
To his credit, he was much more successful in the second half of the season. On the strength of improved contact at the plate, which led to a higher average and more power, Salvy posted a 105 wRC+ in the second half of the year. Even with his marked improvement, Perez finished the season with a 77 wRC+ and -1.1 fWAR. Both of those numbers are the worst of Salvy’s career.
Perez did not catch very much this season. He was behind the dish for 44 games, compared to 80 at DH and 25 at first base. When he was catching, he showed a real penchant for knowing when to use the ABS system. He challenged 65 times, winning 46 of them, good for the sixth-highest win percentage among catchers making challenges. He didn’t get enough reps for this to really matter, and his framing remains poor. Still, it was legitimately cool to see his knowledge of the strike zone (behind the plate at least) put to good use.
Salvy continues to play a lot, which could have been a much bigger issue this season if the Royals had been near contention. The Royals are planning on competing next season, and one way for them to show that they are serious about that would be to downshift Perez to a more part-time role. If Salvy wasn’t a Royals legend, I would be willing to make the argument that they just need to walk away from him regardless of the money they owe him. That seems extremely unlikely to happen, and I don’t think they should.
However, Perez should really be a part-time platoon player at this point, helping out against lefties and catching every now and then. Nothing in Salvy’s history as a player suggests to me that he would be amenable to this, but I have no special insight other than observing that he really likes to play every day. It’s up to Matt Quatraro and his staff to figure out how to balance personalities while giving the team the best chance to succeed next year.
It seems likely that 2027 will be Perez’s last season on the Royals, and I want a storybook ending for him. It’s been a joy and a privilege watching Salvy play baseball all these years. What 2026 reminds us is that time catches up to everyone, and we witnessed that happen in a real way to Perez this year.
