Salvy
On Salvador Perez getting the absolute most out of his talent and passing George Brett
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There are now five active players who lead a big league team in home runs.
They are:
Manny Machado is San Diego’s all-time home run leader with 216. I would not have guessed that Nate Colbert was second, but he is with 163. Fernando Tatis is actually fourth with 160, so you would expect him to get there eventually.
Pete Alonso is the New York Mets home run leader with 264. Second is Darryl Strawberry at 252.
Giancarlo Stanton is the Marlins home run leader with 267. Way back in second place is Dan Uggla at 154.
Mike Trout, of course, leads the California Angels with 422 home runs — Tim Salmon is second at 299.
And, as of this weekend, Salvador Perez is the Royals’ record-holder with 318 home runs. He just passed George Brett’s 317.
The thought that Salvy, of all people, would be the one to surpass George would have been beyond laughable when he was a young defense-first catcher for those gritty Royals teams that somehow won back-to-back pennants and a World Series title in the early-to-mid 2010s. In those days, the Royals minor-league system was being hyped as, perhaps, the best ever, but Salvy was not such a big part of that.
Here were the Royals’ top prospects going into the 2011 season according to Baseball America:
Eric Hosmer — No. 8 overall.
Wil Myers — No. 10 overall; he was still listed as a catcher then.
Mike Moustakas — No. 9 overall.
John Lamb — No. 18 overall
Mike Montgomery — No. 19 overall, just ahead of Chris Sale
Christian Colon — The No. 4 pick in the draft, expected to get to the big leagues quickly.
Danny Duffy — Tall lefty with an advanced feel for pitching.
Chris Dwyer — Tall lefty with great command on his curveball
Aaron Crow — Righty with 98-mph fastball and strikeout stuff
Brett Eibner — Outfielder with immense raw power.
Jason Adam — Righty with a big fastball who grew up in Overland Park, Kan.
Yordano Ventura — Hardest-throwing pitcher in the system, maybe the entire minors.
Tim Collins — Short lefty with command of three pitches.
Tim Melville — Talented righty with solid fastball and promising breaking ball
Cheslor Cuthbert — 18-year-old third baseman who signed a $1.35 million deal; a national record for Nicaragua.
Robinson Yambati — Dominican pitcher with promising stuff despite the 8.89 ERA he put up in the Arizona Fall League.
Salvador Perez.
Yep, that’s what the scouts thought of Salvy. They had him behind Robinson Yambati. They liked his defense but already worried about his weight, so much so that Baseball America wrote: “If he continues to gain weight, he’ll enter the Molina Zone.” BA did write that if Wil Myers was moved to the outfield — which he was — that Perez slotted in as the Royals catcher of the future, but the thought was that, at best, he could be a defensive catcher who made pretty good contact as a hitter with a bit of “gap power.”
And the thing about Salvy once he got to the big leagues that same year was that he was a constant surprise. Nothing about his swing, his body type, his impatience at the plate, or his lack of speed suggested that he ever could become much of an offensive player.
But, by gosh, Salvy was relentless. He played with this ever-present joy, a persistent smile, and he just kept building on his strengths. He hit for high averages his first three years because he put the ball in play and generally hit the ball pretty hard. Then he started to stretch it out and hit balls in the air. He hit 27 home runs in 2017 and 2018. He then missed a whole year with an elbow injury, and he returned to baseball as a complete masher. He hit 11 home runs in just 37 games in the COVID season. The next year, he set a catcher’s record by hitting 48 homers.
People will argue a lot about his Hall of Fame case; I don’t want to do that right now. What I do want to say is that Salvy has scraped every ounce of game out of his talent, and there should be a Hall of Fame for that. With seven more home runs, he will pass Lance Parrish and Gary Carter on the list for most homers by a catcher — only Fisk, Bench and Piazza will be in front of him. What a career. What a life.