Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez reached a pair of milestones on Saturday.
His solo home run in the third inning of the Royals’ 8-6 loss to the Phillies marked the 300th homer in his career. Perez also drove in his 1000th career RBI on that swing.
Those milestones are rare for players who have spent the majority of their careers behind the plate. Perez became the eighth catcher (minimum of 60% of career games) to reach the 300 home run mark. He also became the 15th catcher to reach 1000 career RBI.
Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez not a lock for the Hall of Fame — yet
Those milestones further what has been a storied career. A nine-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glove winner and five-time Silver Slugger, Perez entered Sunday with a career .264/.301/.458 batting line over 6847 plate appearances, hitting 300 homers and 319 doubles. Perez was also at his best when the lights were brightest as he was the World Series MVP in 2015 when the Royals defeated the Mets in five games.
Perez has also joined an impressive company with his 300th homer and 1000th RBI. Six of the previous seven catchers to reach 300+ home runs and 10 of the previous 14 catchers with 1000+ RBI are in the Hall of Fame. Only one player on both lists, former Tigers catcher Lance Parrish, has not been enshrined.
Parrish has a similar resume to Perez at this stage of his career. The former Tiger was an eight-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner and took home six Silver Slugger awards. Parrish had a lifetime .252/.313/.440 batting line over 7797 plate appearances, hitting 324 homers and 305 doubles while driving in 1070 runs. His 39.5 bWAR is slightly higher than Perez’s 35.2 bWAR. However, Parrish had just one appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot, receiving 1.7% of the vote in 2001.
At 35 years old, Perez still has time to add to his resume. He may become the 11th catcher with 2000+ career hits. Every other catcher with 2000+ hits, 300+ homers and 1000+ RBI is in the Hall of Fame. Perez’s candidacy may come down to whether he can reach the 2,000 hit plateau. Otherwise, he may be the Lance Parrish of this generation — an excellent catcher who was not quite worthy of being inducted into Cooperstown.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yardbarker.com ’
