Salvador Perez continues to defy normal baseball aging curves

Watching baseball in the late 90s and early 2000s probably skewed how a lot of us think about how baseball players age. It was not uncommon for players in their late 30s and into their 40s to still be very productive. We are not in that world anymore.

The vast majority of playing time and production for regulars comes from ages 23 through 32 and then drops off fairly steeply. You should also notice that the % of total league fWAR produced for all ages past 32 is lower than the % of plate appearances. That means that those players are producing less than average for their amount of playing time as a group, not all of them, but most. It has become rare to see players in their mid to late thirties who can continue to perform with the young’uns.

And that brings us to Salvador Perez. He turned 35 in May and looked pretty done, to be honest. Through his birthday on May 10, Salvy had a 76 wRC+ and just two home runs through 157 plate appearances. It looked like time had finally gotten to him. Since then, he has posted a 111 wRC+ and 19 homers in 318 times to the plate. Most of that was a monster July with a 1.098 OPS, June was fine, and August he has cooled considerably. That is just how Perez tends to be, hot and cold. But it showed that age had not sapped him of all his abilities just yet. This makes him one of the very few.

Only 20 players getting regular playing time are older than Salvador. Jose Altuve is the closest in age, just 4 days older than the KC backstop. They are mostly players we are all familiar with. Andrew McCutchen and Freddie Freeman are the type you are all probably thinking of, but there are also DJ LeMahieu and our friend Mark Canha. Only 4 out of 21 (including Perez) have put up more than 1 fWAR this season. Giancarlo Stanton and Salvador are close to joining that list, but most of the players in the 35-and-up club are not very productive anymore. Aging is so unforgiving once PEDs are not super prevalent.

The Royals only have control over Perez for one more year, on a team option for 2026 at $13.5 million. Carter Jensen is on the way, but now that Freddy Fermin has been traded, the option being picked up is a near certainty. Can he continue to be productive for one more season? That is now the question every year. He is past the point where you should expect him to still be a good player, but he has defied those odds for long enough that it is anybody’s guess as to when it will end.

Remember when we all thought Carlos Santana was done and then he got hot and Kansas City traded him? That was three years ago and he remained a useful player through last year, though this season is starting to look like the actual end. Salvy could still be worth playing in 2027 or 2028, and he is likely not ever leaving the Royals, which makes him an important puzzle to get right over the next couple of seasons. I, for one, will not believe he is done until we see a full season where it is obviously over.

Salvador Perez is also nearing some milestones. The big one is 300 homers, a rare feat for a catcher. He is only 6 away, so it could happen before the end of 2025. His 1,000th RBI is within reach this season too – only 16 more will get him there. For primary catchers, only 7 and 18 have reached those two thresholds in history, so he is climbing up into rarefied air for a backstop. His place in history is going to be an interesting one to watch post-retirement because his WAR totals are not what you expect of a modern Hall of Famer, but his counting stats very much are for his position.

Down the stretch, I hope the team can find a run that makes for some meaningful baseball. If that is not to be, this season still has a lot of interesting things to pay attention to. Maybe the biggest are these historic numbers for one of the most important players in the Royals’ history. Let’s all remember and appreciate Salvador Perez as his career is waning, but I really want to emphasize that the ride is not over yet.