Salvador Perez makes triumphant return to MLB playoffs in spectacular Royals career

A nine-time MLB All-Star and 2015 World Series champion, Kansas City's captain is on a Hall of Fame path.

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He has the accomplishments worthy of a Hall of Famer, the esteem of his friends extra suited to an elder and icon standing, thanks to his accomplishments and good works, on two continents.

Yet Salvador Pérez remains to be simply 34 years previous, nonetheless one of many best catchers in baseball, nonetheless producing at a price extra befitting a youthful man, and returning to the sport’s postseason stage for the primary time in a decade.

Pérez, the Kansas City Royals’ pillar and more and more taking part in that position for ballplayers from his native Venezuela, is much from carried out. But in his superior skilled age, he has discovered to embrace the position of exemplar, be it in his clubhouse, his homeland or his adopted hometown, the place he leans into a job because the host with essentially the most.

“It’s always good when people try to be like you,” says Pérez. “Especially for your country.”

Tuesday afternoon, the Royals will return to the postseason stage in Game 1 of the American League wild-card collection at Baltimore, their first look since successful the 2015 World Series. Pérez, then 25, was Most Valuable Player of that Fall Classic, batting .364 with an .846 OPS and driving in the game-tying run in the course of the Royals’ dramatic ninth-inning rally in Game 5 at New York’s Citi Field.

It’s a testomony to Pérez’s endurance to think about the place his contemporaries had been on that evening.

Freddie Fermin, the Royals’ backup catcher, was a freshly-signed 20-year-old watching the sport alongside fellow minor league hopefuls on the franchise’s academy in the Dominican Republic.

Seth Lugo, now a veteran of 9 main league seasons and the Royals' Game 2 wild card starter, was on the Mets’ minor league facility in Port St. Lucie, coming off a Class AAA season and hoping in opposition to hope his organizational mates might push the Royals to a Game 6. In 2024, Lugo gained 16 video games and led the foremost leagues with 204⅔ innings pitched.

Pérez? He’s been right here all alongside, via three subsequent 100-loss seasons for the Royals and an possession change.

No matter.

“It feels like yesterday,” says Pérez.

‘He all the time provides us an additional hand'

Perhaps that’s as a result of his fellow champions are by no means too far down his string of textual content messages. Ask Pérez which ’15 Royals he retains in contact with and it appears like a recitation of that squad’s Baseball-Reference web page.

Luke Hochevar. Eric Hosmer. Lorenzo Cain. Jarrod Dyson. Mike Moustakas. Danny Duffy. Wade Davis. Greg Holland. The trainers, varied place coaches, supervisor Ned Yost – Pérez retains all of them shut at hand.

Between Friday, when the Royals clinched a playoff berth, and Monday, when the membership labored out at Camden Yards, Perez's telephone pinged continuously. Hosmer. Moustakas. Cain.

“They're all super excited,” Perez stated Monday.

Perez leaves an analogous impression on friends who cross his path.

Pérez’s Kansas City residence serves as a waystation for ballplayers hungry for fellowship and meal. It is there that Pérez’s mom, Yilda, cooks up delicacies for his many guests.

For the previous three years, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander has counted Pérez as a detailed buddy, having fun with Yilda’s empanadas and Pérez’s steerage.

“All the experience he has, the time he has in the league, and he’s a really good person,” says Santander, who has a career-high 44 residence runs this season and can possible bat third for the Orioles in this collection. “Besides what he does on the field, outside the field he’s a great person. He’s right there trying to help you get better.

“He always gives us an extra hand to keep going forward.”

Pérez takes his position as a beacon for Venezuelan gamers critically, realizing his place following in the footsteps of Luis Aparicio, Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and others. He describes his Kansas City dinner company as a digital rainbow coalition of ballplayers – Venezuelans, Dominicans, American-born gamers, bonds solid over years.

In Venezuela, nonetheless, his affect is rarely forgotten.

Veteran main league infielder Juan Yepez was 16 years previous and taking part in with Pérez’s winter ball crew, the Tiburones de La Guaira. Pérez was a 24-year-old simply getting began in the large leagues.

“I remember his hands were huge. I was a 16-year-old kid, just saying hey, nice to meet you, and whoa, how strong this guy is,” says Yepez of a participant who’s hit 273 career residence runs, tenth all time amongst catchers.

“He’s a perfect example of hard work and being successful in the best baseball in the world and getting better and better.”

The examples resonate even deeper for catchers.

Keibert Ruiz, the Washington Nationals’ catcher, counts Pérez as a neighbor in their Venezuelan hometown of Valencia and have become quick buddies after assembly only a couple years in the past. Pérez’s instance has resonated with Ruiz for greater than a decade however maybe even moreso with Ruiz, now 26, approaching the midpoint of his personal career.

“He inspires me to play baseball,” says Ruiz, in the second yr of an eight-year, $50 million contract. “To me, he’s a Hall of Famer. He’s made Venezuela happy and everyone’s proud of what he’s done on the field and outside it.

“A lot of kids want to be like him. I was in that position. I know.”

Pérez stays an offensive pressure, hitting 27 residence runs and posting a .786 OPS, tops amongst AL catchers and second solely to Milwaukee’s William Contreras. The lone concession to his age is the video games spent at first base or designated hitter – 49 and 24 begins, respectively.

Yet that opens a lane for Fermin, who grew up from that 20-year-old child in the Royals’ academy to a participant in his third yr as Pérez’s backup.

“I always say, for me, it is an honor being next to him,” says Fermin, 29 and a local of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela. “I’m learning the most I can about baseball, or whatever outside the game. It’s an honor to be next to him.

“When I saw them on TV, playing in the World Series, I was so excited. And now, I’m next to him.”

And simply what does Pérez imply for Venezuelan ballplayers?

“Example. Discipline,” says Fermin. “Anything can happen. We can control what we can control.

“But he works hard – no matter what happens.”

‘He's been right here his entire grownup life'

Indeed, Pérez’s work ethic is known, lingering in the burden room after video games for exercises, guarding his 6-3, 255-pound body in opposition to the ravages of time. On Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic crew, he's the de facto chief.

On the Royals, he's the precise captain, named to that publish earlier than the 2023 season, a designation a decade in the making and one the franchise solely bestowed upon Hall of Famer George Brett.

“He always played. He’s playing 150-something games a year. Catching,” says Royals supervisor Matt Quatraro, now in his second yr. “What I’ve learned since I’ve been here is he’s a tremendous person. Tremendously consistent in his attitude, going through last year. The drive to win is something that’s unparalleled.

“He works extremely hard. (Leadership) is natural. People respect him. They know what he’s done, know what he’s meant to the community, the organization.

“He’s been here his whole adult life.”

In that span, the Royals have endured many extra lean years than memorable ones. They misplaced 90 and 91 video games in Pérez’s first two seasons, earlier than an 86-win breakthrough in 2013. A younger core that stewed collectively for years – Hosmer and Moustakas and Alex Gordon and now, this younger wedge of a catcher – lastly solidified in 2014. Kansas City took a wild journey from the wild card recreation all the way in which to Game 7 of the World Series.

Pérez made the ultimate out of Game 7, a foul popout in opposition to Madison Bumgarner, with the tying run on third base.

A yr later, they'd not be denied, Pérez driving in the tying run in the highest of the ninth and singling to begin the game-winning, five-run rally in the twelfth inning of Game 5. Yet the Royals haven't completed above .500 since, and Pérez would miss the 2019 season after present process Tommy John surgical procedure.

How does a revered veteran keep resolute in the face of such futility, together with a 106-loss marketing campaign in Quatraro’s first season?

“That we have a chance,” says Pérez, who alongside together with his spouse Maria Gabriela has three kids. “Baseball – it’s about opportunity. Everybody is going to have some tough moments in this game.

“I think my family motivates me. My teammates – playing for the city of Kansas City. Play hard, every day, no matter what.”

Despite their 106-loss 2023, the Royals talked of an AL Central championship in spring coaching. That purpose was not met, however they hit the next-best mark.

“I think we learned from that. I love baseball – because we have opportunity every day. But I try to think positive every time. And I thank God again that we made it to the playoffs.”

Perez feels loads of appreciation, himself. For the third time in 4 years, Pérez is the Royals’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious philanthropic honor.

His contributions off the diamond prolong to each continents, donating $1 million to a Royals youth academy whereas additionally offering tools for his youth league in Venezuela. His charitable work off the sector extends not solely to Valencia but additionally throughout the border into Colombia, the place he traveled in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic to lend assist.

Pérez has signed a pair of contract extensions in Kansas City, and his four-year, $82 million pact features a 2026 membership choice. His .271/.330/.456 slash line is great for a catcher however for the run-starved Royals, his 104 RBI is lifeblood, pairing with MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr.'s 109 RBI to present the majority of their run manufacturing.

There are few indicators of slowing down.

“He’s still got a lot of gas,” says the Orioles' Santander. “He looks great.”

So do the Royals: They'll lean on younger lefty Cole Ragans in Game 1, adopted by Lugo and, if vital, Michael Wacha in a Game 3. The collection winner will get a visit to Yankee Stadium, the place the Yankees await.

And for Perez, it would be a return to town he walked off the postseason stage a champion. Not essentially a bookend – Perez nonetheless has loads of baseball forward of him. But the potential to add one other chapter to an already particular career.

“He’s a Hall of Famer,” says Ragans. “I learned so much from him. Trust him.

“He's unbelievable. And I'm trying ahead to seeing postseason Salvy.”

Lacques reported from Baltimore and Washington

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Salvador Perez makes triumphant return to MLB playoffs in spectacular Royals career | Sports

A nine-time MLB All-Star and 2015 World Series champion, Kansas City's captain is on a Hall of Fame path.

‘He all the time provides us an additional hand'

‘He's been right here his entire grownup life'

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