Next major Salvador Perez stat to watch after becoming Royals’ home run king

On Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park in Detroit, history was made as Salvador Perez belted his 318th career home run, moving ahead of Hall of Famer George Brett for first in Royals franchise history. While already cemented in Royals history as a captain and all-time legend, Perez’s standing amongst the greatest names to ever don the blue and white only got stronger.

While this moment is worthy of reveling in for a while, some fans may turn to what’s next for Perez. There aren’t many records for Perez to keep chasing Brett for, with the elder legend holding all but insurmountable leads over the backstop in categories like hits, RBI and total bases. However, putting Brett aside for a second, there could be one key stat that Perez can now look to chase before riding off into the sunset.

Many will look to what Perez can do to better his chances at solidifying a place in Cooperstown when all is said and done. One of those ways is racking up more hits. After Saturday’s action, Perez is eight hits away from 1800 meaning in all likelihood, he’ll be under 200 away from 2000 career hits by the time the final 56 games of the season play out.

Achieving 2000 hits won’t make or break his status as a Royals great, but there’s reason to believe that a major threshold like that would make him more endearing to Hall of Fame voters when the time comes when he’s on the ballot. Even if he’s gearing up for lesser workload, perhaps a season or two in the majors could get him to that career hits mark.

Perez may not be Hall of Fame shoo-in at this point in his career

There’s plenty of reason to like Perez’s Cooperstown chances when he lands on the ballot, perhaps not as a first ballot entrant, but someone who could warrant an entrance after multiple years up for consideration. He’s a nine-time All-Star, five-time Silver Slugger, five-time Gold Glove winner and of course was the 2015 World Series MVP when the Royals reigned victorious that year.

And being a franchise home run leader only makes his case stronger for those who believe the Hall should be representative of impact of baseball history alongside individual stats.

However, for those stat truthers, Perez could find himself lacking. From purely a wins above replacement standpoint Perez is only 31st in catcher bWAR and 107th in fWAR. Other catching names like Buster Posey (8th in fWAR and 16th in bWAR) are setting the current standard for Hall of Fame hopefuls and aren’t the greatest name for someone like Perez to be benchmarked against immediately.

But to step into the 2000 hits club alongside catching greats like Mike Piazza (2127), Yogi Berra (2160) and Joe Mauer (2123) among others, seems like one of those feats that will stick in the mind of voters. And when weighed alongside his hardware, it could make the difference for Perez’s case at the end of the day.