After missing all of 2019, Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez will see extended stretches of time at first base in 2020, per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis (via Twitter). Perez underwent Tommy John surgery, and the Royals are willing to be cautious with their catcher as they ease him back in behind the plate. New manager Mike Matheny can certainly commiserate, having spent so many years behind the dish himself.
By Opening Day, Perez may be the last bastion of their title team. Danny Duffy remains, and there’s still a chance that Alex Gordon returns, but if Gordon retires or signs elsewhere, Perez would be the last remaining every day piece of their back-to-back pennant winning teams. Especially now that manager Ned Yost has passed the torch to Matheny, Perez represents an important daily reminder as the bridge to a successful era of Royals baseball.
Simply from a scorebook standpoint, a catcher with a strong defensive reputation who annually hits 20 home runs like Perez is extremely valuable, though poor baserunning and an extremely low walk rate have somewhat mitigated the plus sides of Perez’s game. Regardless, priority one will be avoiding another lost season like 2019. Besides, neither first base nor catcher is a position of real strength for the Royals sans Perez. As with Perez’s counterpart in the 2014 World Series Buster Posey, time at first base should ease the physical toll on Perez’s knees, arm, and back as he prepares to enter his thirties in early May. It may be that this move will be what allows Perez to maintain his influence behind the dish for longer, if not with the workload of his younger years.
As Perez returns to service, there’s some chatter about another member of the title team returning. MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan asked Dayton Moore about the possibility of a Greg Holland signing, to which Moore expressed some optimism. Granted, it would have been a bizarre jab for Moore to outright reject Flanagan’s postulating, but Holland does fit the mold of a free agent the Royals could afford and who might have some interest in playing in Kansas City.
Holland, 34, came out the chute hot last season as the Diamondbacks closer, but he was released after 40 appearances and a 4.54 ERA/4.76 FIP. Thus continued the late-career trend of hot-and-cold for Holland, who simply couldn’t find the strike zone with consistency. He can still miss bats (10.3 K/9), but 6.1 BB/9 and 6 wild pitches led to 5 blown saves and his eventual removal from the closer’s role in Arizona despite 17 successful conversions.
Once released, he signed on with the Nationals, for whom he’d put together a masterful 24 games with a 0.84 ERA at the end of 2018. He didn’t give up a single earned run in 9 innings for the Nats’ Double-A affiliate, but he did not find his way back to the big leagues.
As for the rest of the Royals roster, Moore doesn’t foresee much movement on the big league front. Whit Merrifield, Jorge Soler, and Adalberto Mondesi are parts of their core and the Royals have no intention of breaking them up, per Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star. There is excitement internally about the return of Perez and even Duffy gets a shoutout from Moore as having the potential to get better in the latter years of his contract. Though that’s not typically the arc for pitchers on the backside of thirty, it would not be wholly unprecedented. Duffy’s last two seasons have been largely forgettable as he’s put together 285 2/3 innings of 4.63 ERA baseball (4.74 FIP) while making roughly 25 starts per season.
Beyond those core performers, the Royals believe in the growth potential of infielder Nicky Lopez as well as first baseman Ryan O’Hearn. Both players struggled mightily in 2019. Lopez, 24, hit an underwhelming .240/.276/.325 in 402 player appearances, and O’Hearn, 25, wasn’t much better at .195/.281/.369. For players with at least 350 plate appearances, O’Hearn’s 69 wRC+ ranked 5th from the bottom in the American League, while Lopez came in dead last at 56 wRC+, two points behind Chris Davis’ mark of 58 wRC+.
if Dayton could also sign 1 or 2 starting pitchers I would like our chances of really improving. Say an Aaron Sanchez and Julio Tehran or some hard throwers like that . A pitcher who has upside with something to prove.
Teheran lost veto and tops out around 92
so he’s right up dayton’s alley…..
Improve there chances to do what?
Be the most excitingly irrelevant 75 win team in baseball.
75 wins would be an improvement on 59
Absolutley….exciting! But irrelevant. I was just ball parking a number. Make it 70 wins. That team would be fun to watch in a non-contending season. Toss a few short term deals out for SP and give the fans a non-bank season. You’ll lose 5 slots of draft position probably…but what’s the difference between #8 and maybe #15? The offense had single pieces in it that were fun. Soler, Mondesi, and Merrifield. If you’re not going to trade any of that then make them interesting by taking in some larks. Go let Teheran eat some innings. Gausman was expensive to sign as a closer option…not for the Giants…but yeah what’s to lose. Just a fun bridge season at little impact of possible. That core has to come from within, sure…just have some fun with 2020
if they want to keep Salvy healthy they have the DH they can use. why make him spend any time learning how to play 1st when its clear they dont intend to keep him there (and if they do, he’s a sunk cost)
if salvy needs to DH, rusty kuntz will be back to help Soler in the Outfield.
Salvy has played first before and used to play it in winter ball every year. As a first basemen myself, I can say it’s not rocket science and if you’re going to play a defensive liability, I’d rather it be at 1B than in the outfield. Salvy is below average at 1B, but Soler is a train wreck in RF.
yeah true, forgot about Soler
The Royals are likely viewing his field presence as an intangible. Also, some players struggle on offense when they aren’t involved on defense. Just a couple of possibly reasonings. But yeah…he loses value when not being maximized as a catcher. 20 jacks from 1B isnt great, but from C and with his defensive rep….that’s alright.
As a Royals fan I wish they would trade Perez. Always been overrated in my opinion.
Really??? He is the face of our franchise and he is a top 3 defensive catcher. And he is almost as good as it gets hitting wise
Yes, he is an elite defender, but even if he wasn’t, he would be compared to my team’s catcher, Gary Sanchez, who is the worst defensive catcher I’ve ever seen and makes Jorge Posada look like a Gold Glover, which he wasn’t, but he was alright.
This is how I described having Salvy be out for the 2019 season to this lady that works at the school I volunteer at: It’s like the scene from Temple of doom where the guy had his heart pulled out of his chest….Salvy is basically the heart of the royals. If you paid attention to later in the season when Salvy Was moving forward in his rehab to where he could do catching drills (very light catching drills), He was doing those when they were in Boston….Now, while they only won one game in Boston….I think he gave them a spark when he was there with them.
Plus who better to have for the new pitchers then salvy? Don’t get me wrong, I like cam and i know meibrys has a lot of potential, But Salvy is truly one of a kind.
We unfortunately live in a world that gets fully obsessed with dealing for future value. Having a Salvadore Perez is a fans link to the game…its old school. It doesnt tank a team so long as they dont cling to that theory en masse. Having Hosmer would be a BAD idea now, for example. Look at what SD has on their hands. I’d have rather had Cain than Gordon, personally…but that was the same kind of deal.
How is he overrated?
Now there’s some seriously awesome trolling. Well done, Bjoe.
alex will sign with kc one more year or retire. there is no elsewhere.
That’s what he said himself.
im glad some of these big FA are signing early. Now we can stop talking about Cole/Stras and start getting into some of the other FA/teams.
Just wish the MLB Network would talk about other teams besides the Yankees/Red Sox/Dodgers. They had 4 straight hours on Cole
I agree. It gets nauseating. Nobody cares. It didn’t take a baseball “insider” to know Cole was going to a team that doesn’t know what a spending limit is. 3 or 4 teams were in on him realistically. Woo hoo. On with it already.
@TC Zencka, when do you sleep?! Thanks mlbtr for nonstop coverage
Give him to the Braves in exchange for flowers and a random prospect. Ease him back in by splitting time until he’s ready to go
If I was Dayton and your GM called me with that offer. I wouldn’t just hang up the phone. I’d fly down to Atlanta and slap him right in the mouth.
Trade
Happ
Andujar
Frazier
Vizciano
From Yankees
T. Hill
Cam Gallagher
From royals
Ok yanks want to dump happ for money reasons. That cost the angels their first round pick. They like T. Hill. Gallagher gives them big league experience for a back up.
Royals need inning eating starter and we get happ on a 1 year deal til our boys come. 1 more year and andujar and Frazier will be 25 hr,85 rbi guys. Both controllable for couple years. Both right handed to go with left handed bats coming up. Vizciano bullpen peace to offset loss of Hill.
Whit
Mondesi
Dozier
Soler
Ohearn
Andujar
Frazier
Perez
Bubba
Be a powerful lineup
That would only work if we had four catchers on the 40 man, Cam and meibrys are going to compete to be Salvy’s back up in the spring. So it’s not like we can really trade cam.