3/21/21
SURPRISE, ARIZ. (March 21, 2021) – The Kansas City Royals announced today that they have agreed to a four-year contract extension with catcher Salvador Perez that begins with the 2022 season and has a team option for 2026. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Perez, 30, is coming off a 2020 season in which he was named American League Comeback Player of the Year, a Louisville Silver Slugger Award winner, a first-team All-MLB selection and was the Les Milgram Royal Player of the Year. He hit a career-best .333 with 11 homers and 32 RBI over 37 games. Perez also added 12 doubles, 22 runs scored, 17 walks and one stolen base, while recording a .353 on-base percentage and a career-high .633 slugging percentage, which was the second highest in franchise history (min. 150 plate appearances) behind only Hall of Famer George Brett, who amassed a .664 mark during his AL MVP Award-winning season in 1980. The 11 home runs hit by Perez led the team and were tied for third-most by a player who played 37 games or fewer, trailing only Hall of Famers Frank Thomas (12 in 34 games) in 2005 and Ted Williams (13 in 37 games) in 1953.
He led the Royals to the franchise’s first World Series championship in 30 years in 2015, garnering World Series MVP honors, after batting .364 (8-for-22) with two doubles and two RBI in five games vs. the Mets.
A six-time All-Star, five-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner and three-time Louisville Silver Slugger Award winner, Perez enters the year with 138 career home runs as a catcher, which are third most in the Majors among active players, trailing only Yadier Molina (158) and Matt Wieters (140). Since 2013, his 776 starts behind the plate are second to only Molina’s 910, despite missing the entire 2019 campaign. Salvy has also thrown out 142 would-be base stealers since 2013, which are second-most in the Majors to Jonathan Lucroy (167) in that span, while his 22 career pickoffs are four more than any other catcher since his debut in 2011. He enters the year seventh in franchise history in homers (152), ninth in extra-base hits (351), 10th in RBI (535) and total bases (1,657) and tied for 10th in slugging percentage (.449).
COURTESY KANSAS CITY ROYALS & MLBpressbox.com
