Why Royals will seek to rest Salvador Perez more this season (and might not be able to)
On the eve of the 2015 World Series, the irrepressible Salvador Perez contemplated the abuse he’d absorbed to virtually every part of his body after catching in 311 regular-season and postseason games in a two-season span.
Then the soon-to-be World Series MVP who broke the previous MLB record (312) for most total games caught in two seasons with 316 shared with reporters his abiding philosophy.
“If you wait a second,” he said, “the pain is going to be gone.”
Amid the emotions of the playoffs, Perez added, something would have to be broken or otherwise “really, really bad” to get him out of a postseason game.
Admirable but understandable enough when everything is at stake.
Fast-forward a decade later to the virtual opposite scene of a mundane and irrelevant spring training game at Surprise Stadium:
In the top of the third inning against Seattle Wednesday night, Perez was dazed by a backswing that hit his facemask with such force that left him momentarily down on all fours and contending with what manager Matt Quatraro called “almost like a boxer’s cut.”
As Perez was attended to by athletic trainer Dave Iannicca and Quatraro, longtime Royals broadcaster Steve Stewart quite aptly reckoned Perez “may own the Royals record for trainer visits to him on the field between being a catcher and his longevity.”
Not to mention how rarely he will leave a game — even 20 years since the Royals first scouted him in Venezuela, 19 years since they signed him and more than a half his lifetime ago since he appeared here for rookie ball in 2007.
Even at spring training, and even with a laceration that swelled into a black eye and left pitcher Michael Lorenzen practically flinching as he later described it.
“It was bad,” he said. “I didn’t know it was that bad.”
Lorenzen’s realization was delayed because the 34-year-old, nine-time All-Star reiterated why he’s still the heartbeat of this team — and a force of nature — by staying in the game after Iannicca quelled the bleeding.
“That’s pretty cool,” Lorenzen said. “There’s a standard. That’s a standard.”
An incredible one, to be sure.
But the episode also speaks to a certain dilemma for the Royals.
Never mind that it’s one they’ve essentially faced ever since those marathon seasons when then-manager Ned Yost simply couldn’t resist the spell of Perez — who has had much the same impact on about any Royals fan.
Now serving as a senior advisor to general manager J.J. Picollo, Yost on Wednesday at the Royals’ spring training complex gushed at the mention of Perez.
As he spoke, he turned toward the field where he first saw him in 2010, recalling that if he’d had his way Perez would have been promoted to the big leagues from Class A ball that year.
Which helps explain the dynamic to come — and that the Royals once again seek to address.
Perez became such a critical cog in those back-to-back World Series teams that Yost seldom was willing, or felt able, to rest him.
No matter that he knew better.
“I can’t catch Sal 150 games again,” Yost said at the 2014 winter meetings. “I can’t. I’ll kill the kid.”
Luckily for all concerned, Perez is part force of nature, part some sort of smiling, dancing Terminator and all heart.
All of that is what made him one of the few most beloved players ever to wear a Royals uniform.
It enabled him to rebound from the one injury (elbow) that penetrated his force field and cost him the 2019 season.
And after last year enjoying his second-most productive RBI season (104) and matching the second-most home runs of his career (27) while helping spark the Royals at last back to the postseason, it’s all made for another element in the formula of how to manage him.
With 273 career home runs and 916 RBIs, all those All-Star games and that World Series MVP distinction and five Gold Gloves and five Silver Slugger awards, Perez has amassed the makings of a candidacy for the National Baseball Hall of Fame — where George Brett resides as the only primary Royal.
Between that and his remarkable and infectious work ethic (“let’s go, game speed!” he’s been exhorting here during basic drills) and what might be called the Bobby Witt Jr. window to compete for more postseason glory (“we are going to compete for everything,” Perez said), no wonder the Royals want to extend his career as long as possible.
And, stop us if you’ve heard this one, they believe resting Perez more will be vital to that.
At least in theory.
“I’ll be honest, I often question myself whether it’s the right thing to do,” Quatraro said Thursday morning. “Like, is he a unicorn, and he can just do it?”
Still, that’s why Quatraro and Picollo made this point the focus of a two-hour offseason meeting with Perez in Miami as he enters the final guaranteed season of his most recent contract extension — with the Royals almost certain to pick up the $13.5 million club option next year.
After a lunch with Perez and Royals newcomer Jonathan India, Picollo said they spoke about “how we view your career” — meaning on the cusp of enough more productivity to enhance an already-intriguing Hall of Fame resume.
“But the point of the conversation,” Picollo said, “was playing less.”
Indeed, Perez appeared in a career-high 158 regular-season games in addition to six playoff games.
While Perez only started 90 games behind the plate as he started at first 44 times and started as the designated hitter in 23 games, taking another eight or so days off along the way “is how we prolong your career,” Picollo told him.
Especially since Perez playfully told Picollo he wanted to play until he was 45.
When Picollo teased him about not being Tom Brady, Perez reeled himself in to say he’s shooting for 40.
As for how Perez, whose offensive production declined late last season, processed the chat?
“Not the easiest conversation,” Picollo said, smiling. “I was just real with him. I was just very honest with him.”
As he recalled the talk, Quatraro said Perez understood where they were coming from and knows that they care. But Perez also said, “It’s not going to feel like this in May or June when you tell me (you’re sitting).”
Noting that they usually have a conversation ahead of time, Quatraro said, “what if I just don’t talk to you and just tell you?”
“And he’s like, ‘That might be better. But who knows? Because I might come in and yell at you before the game starts, you know?’ “
Before his injury Wednesday, I asked Perez about the conversation.
And maybe I got some small sense of the way it went.
While he said “whatever they want me to do, I’m going to do,” he also added, “Hopefully, I can be healthy and play 158 games.”
And how much does he want to catch?
“One-hundred percent,” he said, laughing. “You know that.”
What about considering load management?
“I love to play,” he said, smiling again. “You know that.”
Perhaps counter-intuitively but “sounds good intellectually,” Quatraro said when asked, resting him more often overall might even enable the Royals to let him catch more — a notion that’s in part a consideration of his impact behind the plate but also reflects a cognizance that, in fact, being a catcher is a crucial part of a catcher’s Hall of Fame profile.
For instance, if Perez tops 300 home runs and 1,000 RBIs, he will be among the top 10 Hall of Fame catchers in both categories.
“I look at part of my responsibility as helping in any way I can to get him to the Hall of Fame,” Quatraro said. “I juggle (if) catching more is good for him, because then people can’t pick at his resume, or is the extra year or two that he might play, because he doesn’t catch as much, (make) him a lock because he’s got the numbers?
“And who knows? I’ve struggled with that.”
There’s plenty more to any debate about Perez’s HOF qualifications, as The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff wrote last summer.
That’s all for another time, hopefully for all concerned still years from now.
When his case will be best made by his final body of work … however long his own body prevails through the only way he knows.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 1:08 PM with the headline "Why Royals will seek to rest Salvador Perez more this season (and might not be able to)."