After hiatus, Salvador Perez rejoins Royals for postseason action | Sports

ATLANTA — As it grew to become obvious Friday night time that the Royals can be clinching a postseason berth with the Twins’ loss to the Orioles, Royals common supervisor J.J. Picollo sought out Salvador Perez first, to congratulate him and to thank him.

The GM thanked Perez for sticking by means of it, for believing within the imaginative and prescient and for simply being Salvy, the catcher the Royals have watched develop right into a dependable backstop, veteran chief and the fourth captain in franchise historical past.

Perez helped the Royals to their 2015 World Series title 9 years in the past. Now he’s again within the postseason once more. This time with a distinct group however with the identical purpose in thoughts — bringing successful baseball again to Kansas City.

“I told him I love him, told him I’m happy he’s here,” Picollo mentioned. “We couldn’t do this without him.”

At one level final yr, Picollo mentioned buying and selling Perez in an effort to get him to a contender and assist rebuild the Royals’ farm system as they tumbled towards 106 losses in 2023.

One yr later, Perez will play within the postseason with the one crew he’s ever identified.

“We had that discussion last year and did what we wanted: Got him back to the playoffs,” Picollo mentioned. “That’s the only reason we even ever thought about him leaving here. But we did it with him here. That’s even better.”

Perez, 34, desires to ultimately retire a Royal and mentioned he desires to play “until I’m 45 if I can,” however most of all he has wished to get the Royals again to the postseason.

They wished to get him again there, too.

“That was one of our main goals in the offseason, to get him back to where he felt like he rightfully belonged,” supervisor Matt Quatraro mentioned. “Clearly he’s a huge part of the reason we’re here.”

After the Royals gained all of it in 2015, they stumbled right into a rebuild, and Perez has been by means of all of it. He’s stood by the group and insisted he wished to see it win once more. Slowly, the items began to fall into place. The Royals drafted Bobby Witt Jr. — “the best player I ever played with,” Perez mentioned — and commenced to construct a crew across the shortstop and catcher. Quatraro was always grateful for Perez’s steering in 2023, when issues didn’t go the way in which they wished.

Perez might see the muse constructing.

“This means a lot,” Perez mentioned. “I really wanted it for these guys. I wanted it for the young guys. They’ve never been in the playoffs before. After this year, they’re going to play for the playoffs.”

As the Royals ready to spray champagne on Friday night time, it was Perez who acquired the group to settle down for speeches and who introduced proprietor John Sherman into the center of the circle to thank him for placing this crew collectively.

There have been many who thanked Perez on Friday night time, too.

“Sal hasn’t been [to the postseason] in a long time,” outfielder Tommy Pham mentioned. “I’m really happy to get in for him as well. He’s been with this organization the whole time. The highs and lows. All he wants is to get back to the postseason. I’m happy we can do it for him.”

While nothing Perez does is ever a shock, the Royals can’t wait to see what’s in retailer for him in October.

“I've watched highlights of him in the postseason,” right-hander Brady Singer mentioned. “I can’t wait to watch it live. He’s made for October.”