Veteran Catcher El Salvador Perez It was the face of the Royals franchise, the last person on the club’s 2015 World Series team, and nine All-Star games with five gold gloves and five silver medals under his name. He is one of the most important players in the organization’s history, and in this sense the 35-year-old’s legacy is already safe. However, this incomprehensible legacy won’t help the 2025 playoff odds, and in this regard, Perez’s performance this year is lacking. So far in 2025, he has hit only .218/.254/.324 in 46 games and 190 cricket games. According to Baseball’s reference and Fangraphs, his WRC+ is only 57 and the Negative War, which was a brief craze for his three games from April 24 to May 24 to May 24.
This production won’t be cut for the Royal Club with playoff aspirations. Their 27-22 record today is enough to keep them strong in wild card games, but the losses of both recently Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans From their spin ahead, in the offense, more pressure than ever to run with scoring. Perez is usually a key part of the crime, and other key gears in the lineup are like Vinnie Pasquantino and Jonathan India Perez also worked hard to produce early this year and remains as important as ever. Can he turn the situation around? Or are the royals making a difficult decision this summer about the franchise legend’s game time in the color flag competition?
Looking at the basic indicators provides many reasons for optimism. The most obvious factor in Perez’s poor performance is his anemia. 106 ISO, which will leave him with 2024 hits, contact bats (such as Nico Hoerner and Nolan Schanuel. From 2021 to 2024, this is a worrying comparison given Perez’s average home run per season, but the good news is that all signs point to a faster time than later. Despite having only two home runs so far this year, Perez’s 13.0% barrel rate is actually his best as he hit 48 bombs in 2021, while his 45.7% hard hit speed is better than any of the past two seasons. In fact, Perez’s barrel and the rate of hard hits were almost the same as Pete Alonso This year.
This could make it easy to reveal Perez’s bland performance so far this season, but to correct his own fluorine in due course, which the royals certainly hoped. That being said, there are at least some potential red flags in the veteran’s performance. Although Perez has never been a particularly disciplined batsman, his 22.6% strikeout rate and 4.2% walk rate are all in the wrong direction compared to his 2024 All-Star Game. He also hit more balls on the ground with fewer line drives compared to last year. However, all four numbers meet the scope of Perez’s career norms.
Perhaps the biggest reason to pay attention to Perez is his age. As a 35-year-old catcher, it wouldn’t be surprising if he didn’t have the ability to maintain peak performance in 162 games like he did when he was young. Regular reps for first base and DH should help, but it is still worth noting that Perez has seen his offense worse off when the calendar has been in each of the past two seasons. If Perez continues to decline in 2025, he may run out of his overall season numbers despite the solid basic indicators of the year.
How do MLBTR readers think Perez’s 2025 campaign will work? As the base numbers suggest, will he bounce back around in recent years? Or did he struggle in the first half for too long to make up for the potential slowdown after the All-Star game? There is a say in the following polls:
