Royals star catcher Salvador Perez earns All-MLB honors after his bounce-back season
In a pandemic-shortened season coming off of Tommy John surgery that wiped out his entire 2019 season, Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez re-established himself as the game’s premier player at his position.
Perez garnered All-MLB First Team honors, announced Wednesday night on MLB Network. The distinction recognizes him as the top all-around catcher in Major League Baseball.
He beat out finalists J.T. Realmuto of the Philadelphia Phillies and Travis d’Arnaud of the Atlanta Braves.
The selection process consisted of 50% of the vote coming from fans and the other half from a panel of media members, broadcasters, former players and other officials.
“I can’t tell you guys how happy I am to be named to the All-MLB Team,” Perez said in a video played on MLB Network. “It was a long year in 2019 for me, having my Tommy John surgery. This year, we started a little late. I had my eye problem. But you know what, I still had the season that I had. Thank God. Thank you all you guys for voting for me. I appreciate that, and we’ll see you soon.”
Earlier this offseason, Perez won his third Silver Slugger Award, recognizing the American League’s best offensive catcher. A panel of AL executives also selected Perez as The Sporting News’ AL All-Star catcher in October.
Perez, a six-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner, also won the AL Comeback Player of the Year award on Thursday night.
After overcoming a bout with COVID-19 at the start of summer camp/spring training 2.0, Perez also missed 20 games due to an eye ailment that caused blurred vision and forced him onto the injured list. He still set career highs in batting average (.333) and slugging percentage (.633) while playing in 37 games in the 60-game pandemic-shortened season.
He led the Royals in home runs (11), and ranked second in RBIs (32) and extra-base hits (23). His 11 homers tied for third most by a player who played in 37 games or fewer, behind Frank Thomas’ 12 in 34 games in 2005 and Ted Williams’ 13 in 37 games in 1953 when Williams missed most of the season as he served in the military during the Korean War.
Perez tied Realmuto for the most home runs in the majors as a catcher this season, and Perez led all catchers (minimum 100 at-bats) in batting average (.348), slugging percentage (.681) and OPS (1.048) as a catcher (not including at-bats playing another position or serving as designated hitter).
With longtime left fielder Alex Gordon retired, Perez became the longest-tenured Royals position player. He and starting pitcher Danny Duffy have been members of the MLB club since 2011.
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 7:34 PM with the headline "Royals star catcher Salvador Perez earns All-MLB honors after his bounce-back season."
