Royals catcher Salvador Perez suffered a Grade 2 MCL tear in his left knee and will miss the first four to six weeks of the season, Rustin Dodd of The Athletic reports. The injury occurred when Perez slipped while carrying luggage on Tuesday, per Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. He’s unlikely to require surgery, manager Ned Yost told Flanagan and other reporters.
Perez’s accident may well lead to a career low in games played this season for the 27-year-old, who has been eminently durable throughout his Kansas City tenure. Since 2013, his first full season, Perez has appeared in no fewer than 129 games in any regular-season campaign. He logged that total last year during a season in which he hit .268/.297/.495 (103 wRC+) with a personal-best 27 home runs across 499 plate appearances. On the defensive side, Perez threw out a league-average 27 percent of would-be base stealers – a significant decline from the 48 percent he caught in 2016 – and ranked as one of Baseball Prospectus’ worst pitch framers.
Statistics aside, Perez is arguably the heart and soul of the Royals, which brings value that’s impossible to quantify. He and the re-signed Mike Moustakas are the leaders of a position player group that said goodbye to Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain in free agency. Kansas City will have to make do without Perez for the first several weeks of the season, though, and that should lead to a Drew Butera–Cam Gallagher duo behind the plate (depth chart).
Another Met goes down. Only the Mets!
Sometimes the Royals!
he’s a Royal, not a Met’s player
that joke, just flew right over your head….
If he was a Met he’d be done for the season.
Joke? How is it a joke when he keeps putting it on every injury report ? It’s stupid! Not a joke !
Met fans always act like they’re the only team that has injuries.
Giants say hello.
I would say it’s the media that acts like only the Mets have injuries.
Unfortunately Giants got the Mets beat for now
Either a joke or you Mets up your facts.
Now that’s a joke 😉
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Dangit, Salvador! I told you not to run after the ice cream truck when you are carrying your suitcase!
unbelievable
Why is he carrying his luggage where is his wife?
touche!!!
What? That’s a dumb comment! But I thought one of the perks of the big leagues was that you didn’t have to carry your own bags !
It doesn’t really matter—his injury is t caused by luggage—it’s caused by compromised muscles, tendons and ligaments. That could happen (as with Roger Federer) while he’s giving his kid a bath, or on the playing field. Either way, it’s virtually inevitable.
And now Salvy will be joined in lore by all the other oddly weird injuries suffered by MLB players.
Who was it that cut their hand up slicing frozen meat?
Jeremy Affeldt?
Jeremy Affeldt? He was separating frozen burgers. The weirdest to me was Brian Anderson. He burnt his face testing to see a hotel iron was hot.
Not sure exactly who was slicing frozen meat, but Oddibe McDowell definitely makes the list for slicing his hand while cutting a dinner role at a team-sponsored dinner in Arlington years ago.
Clint Barmes never hit with the same authority after separating his shoulder falling down the stairs while carrying a bundle of deer meat, gifted by teammate Todd Helton.
Glenallen Hill got cut up after smashing a glass table, dreaming that spiders were attacking him.
Cashner cut his hand while skinning a buck.
Mike Matheny once sliced his hand on a knife he was opening as a birthday present..
Derek Holland was involved in a bizarre injury; tore ACL somehow, caused by combination of his dog, and stairs.
The Sosa sneeze take a the tissue.
No no no…Chris Brown with the pulled eyelash for the Padres back in ’88.
Don’t forget Steve Sparks blowing out his shoulder trying to tear a phone book in half.
Eyelid, but good memory! That’s one of the best ever.
Also, get a big kick out of Kendrys Morales jumping on home plate after a walk off grand slam and breaking his leg.
And, of course, OJ cutting his finger on a glass in a Chicago hotel.
Or the time Micah Johnson cut his hand open trying to de-pit an avocado.
Like Mat Latos straining his oblique for holding in a sneeze.
Ummmm Jeff Kent washing his car (allegedly)
Well isn’t that some crappy luck?
It’s only fair to blame Drew Butera, he tried to hurt Perez last year to get more playing time.
He’s only expected to miss 4-6 weeks with an MCL tear? I’m no doctor, and I don’t know how extensive the tear is, but being a catcher with a knee injury like that I have to think 4-6 weeks is pretty optimistic.
He is an elite athlete so injuries like this probably have a shorter timeline than they would for people like us. But still, the Royals might be in trouble by not having a backup catcher. They probably weren’t going to be good anyway but not having a catcher at all is a real problem.
I forgot that Lucroy also had an luggage related injury.
As far as back ups go we’re fortunate to have Drew Butera
No team has a good backup catcher otherwise they would starters…Butera is no exception.. he’s one tenth the player Perez is and the Royals will pay a price losing him for two months. This stinks!
The Braves employed two very good catchers last year.
Giants have Hundley. He could probably be a pretty good starter
Former Seattle reliever Kazuhiro Sasaki suffered broken ribs in a reported bout with a suitcase:
seattlepi.com/news/article/The-Go-2-Guy-Kazu-stick…
the Royals should sign Cameron Rupp in the meantime
Not a bad idea altho I think they will just recall Gallagher from Omaha.and let Butera have his day in the sun.
karma sucks
He’s just sad LoCain is gone and wanted to take a break. Nothing to see here….lol
Lot of odd things happening to Royals last couple years.
Ventura death
Pitcher Flynn falling off barn he was roofing
Ned Yost almost dying falling out of deer stand.
Now Perez missed a step on his stairs at his house moving his family in.