Why Salvador Perez’s presence means more to Royals than it could for any other team
For the better part of the last 15 years, the Kansas City Royals have leaned in on sentimentality and the personal side of the business. In many ways that has become their brand.
There might not be a player who embodies that philosophy and the era ushered in by general manager Dayton Moore and his lieutenants than catcher Salvador Perez.
Their embrace of scouting with a heavy emphasis on an individual’s character, the way they’ve fiercely clung to their homegrown stars, and assessing a player’s value in a larger view than what statistics and analytics might measure — it’s all part of Perez’s tenure with the club, a tenure that has been in lockstep with that of the current front office.
Speaking with The Star this week, Rene Francisco, the Royals assistant GM for major league and international operations, expressed he views his own career as intertwined with Perez’s.
“I told Salvy — I actually told Dayton first, ‘It would be great if hopefully I can be in this organization and see Salvy retire as a Royal. If I’m able to stay here as long as him,’” Francisco said. “Start with him and see whenever he’s done playing baseball.”
Perez’s rise from unheralded teenager out of Venezuela to All-MLB player and face of the franchise came just as the Royals organization built from the ground up into a World Series champion.
He established a deep personal connection with the organization, and there’s little doubt that Perez’s presence means more to the franchise than it could to any other. The Royals declared as much with the four-year extension worth a guaranteed $82 million announced on Sunday, the richest contract in franchise history.
“In an era where it’s very difficult at times for markets like ours to sign some of their most popular players, their most successful, their most talented and their most productive players with great history — like Salvador — to long-term contracts, that’s what we’re most thrilled about as an organization,” Moore said. “... There’s a lot of different emotions and feelings with a signing of this caliber.”
Emotional connection
If there was any doubt that the emotions ran deep and the extension of the relationship between the Royals and Perez far surpassed the mere impact of dollars, you only needed to listen to the way Perez talked about his longtime position coach Pedro Grifol.
The relationship Perez described with Grifol, the Royals bench coach and catching coach, wasn’t built on stances or scouting reports, pitch framing or blocking drills.
Perez grew up without a father in a rough part of Valencia, Venezuela. He was raised by his mother, Yilda Diaz, and grandmother, Carmen Ramos. Perez choked up briefly during Sunday’s press conference when he mentioned his grandmother, who died in 2013.
“I’d like to thank Pedro,” Perez said. “I want to thank God for sending me Pedro to be around me. I didn’t grow up with my dad, you guys know that. I feel that God sent me him — to help me, raise me and teach me about life and insight on the field.”
Grifol has become a year-round presence in Perez’s life.
During the season, they’re obviously working together closely. In the offseason, they both reside in the Miami area, and doing drills and workouts with Grifol has become a regular part of Perez’s training regiment.
Grifol was one of the few people Perez interacted with on a near daily basis during the pandemic shutdown last year.
He has come a long way
Now, Perez is known as a six-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glove award winner, three-time Silver Slugger and a World Series MVP.
But when Francisco first laid eyes on Perez, none of those things were even dreams. The first time Francisco saw Perez play, Francisco hadn’t even begun working for the Royals and Perez wasn’t behind the plate.
Francisco still worked for the Atlanta Braves in summer of 2006 when he attended a tournament in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, that featured players from Cuba, Panama, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela.
There, Francisco asked one of the Braves scouts about a tall, dangly kid playing first base. Perez didn’t catch during the several days Francisco attended the tournament, but he played first base and hit the ball hard each time he made contact.
Later that year, Moore brought Francisco over to the Royals to head up the international operation. During Francisco’s first trip with Latin American scouting coordinator Orlando Estevez to Venezuela, a scout named Juan Indiago set up the workout with Perez.
Francisco recognized Perez as the first baseman he’d seen earlier that year. Again, this tall 16-year-old with a loose body hit the ball hard and even shot line drives to the opposite field tall and showed off a strong throwing arm.
“Two things that stood,” Francisco said. “The big smile that he’s never lost. And always hungry to play the game and play the game hard, go after it, respect the game. That’s one thing that he has not changed. He has not changed since we first met him, since his first game in the United States. His work ethic, striving to be good. It’s amazing.”
Francisco authorized Estevez and Indiago to go back to Perez’s home later that night and sign him to a contract.
Faith rewarded
When Baseball American ranked the Royals farm system the best in baseball in 2011, Perez wasn’t recognized as one of the Top 100 prospects in the sport.
He was the No. 17 prospect in the Royals’ own system and there was some question whether Perez or Wil Myers was the organization’s catcher of the future.
Later that year, Perez made his MLB debut. By the end of 2013, he’d earned his first All-Star selection and won his first Gold Glove.
In 2014, Perez came through with one of the biggest hits in club history.
He smacked a Jason Hammel pitch down the third base line and past a diving fielder with two on, two outs and the score tied in the bottom of the 12th inning of the win-or-go-home American League Wild Card Game. His hit lifted the Royals past the Oakland Athletics and start the first of back-to-back World Series runs.
After the Royals came up just short in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, Perez won the World Series MVP the following year when they captured the franchise’s first title in 30 years.
A 30-year-old veteran, Perez is now the guy young players look up to and idolize. In the clubhouse, he’s grown into the mantle of leadership.
“He’s our captain. He’s our best player,” said backup catcher Cam Gallagher.
Along the way, Perez’s infectious smile and boisterous personality became synonymous with the team and his image became that of the Royals in commercials, advertisements and magazine covers.
Committing to each other
Asked if he’d felt tempted by the idea of free agency and seeing what else might be out there, what it might be like to have teams vying for his services and recruiting him, Perez answered in a matter-of-fact nature, “No. I want to stay here.”
In January, Royals CEO and chairman John Sherman, manager Mike Matheny, Grifol, Francisco, Moore and Perez gathered in Florida for dinner and spent the evening talking about the prospect of new a deal to keep Perez with the Royals long-term.
Instead of playing out the final season of his deal and becoming a free agent for the first time in his career, Perez didn’t let it get that far. He chose to wrap things up before the season even started.
“I feel so happy and excited that I’m going to stay here for the long term, four or five more years,” Perez said. “Hopefully, I can end my career here. I love the people here. I love the fans.”
The Royals brass believes Perez will be crucial to the team’s success going forward as they build around a different core and transition a crop of young pitchers to the majors.
Matheny and Moore have repeatedly preached that Perez has a mixture of work ethic and an intangible nature to him, and his game will allow him to remain a productive player, even at the game’s most grueling position, well into his 30s.
Meanwhile, time has afforded Francisco the ability to watch the dangly teenager grow into a franchise icon.
“It has been a blessing, seeing a young kid when he signed here to the man (he is now), seeing his kids, wife, winning a championship here,” Francisco said. “We want to win another one. He’s going to be a big part of it.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Why Salvador Perez’s presence means more to Royals than it could for any other team."
