Friday night was a night many Kansas City Royals fans will want to quickly forget and move on from, after losing their Opening Day matchup versus the Atlanta Braves in shutout fashion.
However, as much as there was to nitpick in the losing effort, it’s always a good idea not to neglect the silver linings and find something to build off of, especially when it can’t come from the scorecard.
Enter Salvador Perez.
Time after time, the Royals captain has been a source light to this franchise. In the World Series era in the mid-2010s to the bleak early 2020s, the Royals backstop has been a stabilizing presence.
And while he wasn’t overly inspiring at the dish, going 1-for-4 on the day at the plate while leaving five runners on base, it was his behind the plate where he made his mark.
The MLB world, whether it be players, coaches, umpires and fans are all adjusting to the new ABS challenge system when determining balls and strikes.
But Salvy looked like season pro in just the first regular season game the new system’s been in place for.
Royals lost Opening Day matchup, but Salvador Perez has gotten knack for new ABS challenge system
As Rob Friedman (aka Pitching Ninja) put it on X on Friday night, Perez was “teaching Doug Eddings the bottom of the strike zone”.
Perez not didn’t just successfully overturn one call, but he did it on three separate occasions.
Salvador Perez used the ABS challenge behind the plate three times tonight on nearly identical pitches…
He was successful all three times 😅
pic.twitter.com/KZK3zeThwx— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) March 28, 2026
The first came on a 1-1 offering from Cole Ragans to Jonah Heim in the bottom of the fourth on a pitch low in the zone.
The next came on a 2-0 offering from long-reliever Bailey Falter against Eli White in the very next inning, once again proving to catch the bottom of the zone.
Finally, in the very same inning, Falter planted one in the bottom of the zone against Mauricio Dubón, only for Eddings for call a ball again. And like clockwork Perez tapped the helmet to challenge and showed up Eddings one more time for good measure.
In a system, similar to the traditional managerial challenge system, where you retain your challenges if successful, having a catcher who has a keen eye for it will be key moving forward. And with much of the league still getting used to it, the Royals might have a bit of an early advantage on their hands here.
Perez is often criticized for his work behind the dish, largely in part to his sub-20th percentile framing rates in four of the last five seasons.
However, even if he isn’t the greatest framer, he’s proving why no one should ever sleep on his presence behind the dish. He’s got an experienced eye who knows how to work with a pitching staff and the ABS challenge system could change everything in how he’s perceived defensively.
The hope now is that Perez can keep this going moving and the offense as a whole can reward him for his efforts and at the very least put some runs on the board.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
