The Royals have had a dreadful start to the season, as they are tied for the worst record in Major League Baseball at 7-14.
This past week has seen the Royals fail to win once despite playing a number of close games, although that wasn’t the case Saturday. The Yankees pummeled the Royals 13-4 in New York, but Royals catcher Salvador Perez didn’t play.
The Royals were playing a day game following Friday night’s contest (a 4-2 loss at Yankee Stadium), so Royals manager Matt Quatraro gave Perez the day off.
“Salvy’s been struggling a little bit. Just try to give him a little mental breather,” Quatraro said, per Anne Rogers, the Royals reporter for MLB.com.
Perez, 35, is batting .160 with three home runs with six RBIs and 17 strikeouts in 20 games.
Hours after the Royals’ loss on Saturday, Perez refuted Quatraro’s reason for the day off.
“I don’t need a mental breather,” Perez wrote on X.
That’s a potentially troubling sign for the Royals when the team captain offers a rebuttal on social media to something said by the manager. For the Royals’ sake, hopefully Perez and Quatraro can smooth over any issues there might be.
Most Royals fans showed their support for Perez in response to what he wrote, although some took note of his rough start. A few also worried that the Royals’ season was going off the rails.
This is a tiny sample of what fans were saying.
This story was originally published April 18, 2026 at 9:18 PM.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com ’
