Salvador Perez is finally becoming the hitter Royals fans have desperately been awaiting

The Kansas City Royals are starting to show some life with back-to-back wins over the Mariners after suffering a brutal 1-10 stretch immediately beforehand. However, in both the height of their struggles and in their newfound Memorial Day weekend momentum there have been some positive storylines that have fallen to the wayside that deserve some time in the spotlight.

One of those storylines, that only really emerged after his heroics on Sunday but perhaps is a bit more on display than others, is Salvador Perez potentially turning a new leaf at the plate at long last. Entering Sunday’s series finale against the Mariners, the Royals captain was hitting .244/.304/.463 with a trio of homers, four RBI and a 129 wRC+. While he wasn’t walking much per se, he’s also looked far more disciplined than his over 20% K-rate on the season would otherwise indicate.

And the aforementioned heroics on Sunday made those metrics look better. The 36-year-old backstop went 3-for-4 with three RBI in the Royals 8-6 victory, where they clinched their first series win in their last four.

Sunday’s performance also proved how impactful not having multiple black holes in the heart of the order, with both him and fellow underperformer Vinnie Pasquantino, can be for winning ball games. The fifth inning was the perfect example of this. After driving in a pair of runners to open the Royals’ scoring on the afternoon, Carter Jensen came up behind Salvy and promptly deposited a double into left field to score Perez and one more, turning the tables from a 1-0 mid-innings deficit to a 4-1 lead.

He and Pasquantino are really the glue that connects the efforts Maikel Garcia and their MVP hopeful Bobby Witt Jr. are producing at the top the order. So any sort of improvement from those two is game-changing in getting the Royals back in the competitive hunt.

He’s been better, but Salvador Perez still has plenty of improvement to do at the plate

Now, while it may look peachy all of sudden for the Royals’ captain, a solid 12-game stretch at the plate shouldn’t be a reason for throwing an all-out parade for Perez. It is after all the end of May and we’re talking about a nine-time All-Star, five-time Silver Slugger award winner and former World Series MVP here. The expectations for him are definitely higher than what he’s produced to this point. Not to mention, he did just ink a brand new two-year, $25 million extension this winter.

Perez is still only hitting .213 with a well below average .619 OPS. His 19.7% K-rate still projects just as high as it usually, while his 4.2% walk rate is also the lowest since 2023 and not the type of strikeout to walk ratio any great hitter would want. Simply put, he hasn’t performed how hitter on a potential Hall-of-Fame track should this season, even if it’s the twilight years of his career.

And apart from a 58th percentile K-rate and 59th percentile barrel rate, Perez still sits below the average-threshold across the board from an advanced metrics perspective. And a 44th percentile xSLG being the only thing saving him from being in the 20th percentile or lower across the board from an expected metrics point-of-view.

At the end of the day though, no one can change the past. Perez had to start somewhere and if this is the stretch he needed to turn a new leaf, than so be it – even if it did take nearly two months to happen.