The Johnny Bench argument Royals’ Salvador Perez has for Hall of Fame glory

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Kansas City Royals longtime star Salvador Perez tied the franchise record for most home runs in a career during the club’s 5-4 win over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday. With the record in the bag with just one more dinger, it got one writer for The Athletic thinking about Perez’s Hall of Fame case.

Jayson Stark of The Athletic wrote a column on Thursday going over which active players are possibly in the mix for a spot in the MLB Hall of Fame. While he doesn’t have Perez as a lock, Stark provided a strong case for the 36-year-old catcher by using Johnny Bench to help with his argument.

Perez and Bench have a lot in common in terms of their accomplishments as catchers in MLB. They are the only two catchers to be the all-time home run leaders for their respective teams and are the only catchers to win five Gold Glove Awards, record 300+ career home runs, be named an All-Star nine times, and be named a World Series MVP. Perez is also just one of three catchers ever (Johnny Bench, Pudge Rodriguez) to record five Gold Gloves and 300+ career home runs.

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Even so, Stark does name a few reasons why the 15-year veteran may not be a lock for the Hall of Fame. Regardless, Stark believes many will debate over Salvador Perez’s Hall of Fame case once he eventually calls it a career.

“His Cooperstown case isn’t truly as clear-cut as those last three nuggets make it look,” Stark wrote. “Jay Jaffe’s invaluable JAWS metric has Perez ranked as only the 32nd-best catcher in history. And if you go by FanGraphs’ version of WAR, he lands at No. 22 — just since 2000. But has he done enough to chug across midfield? Let’s go with yes. But is this journey going to end in the plaque gallery? I see a furious Salvy debate coming in my crystal ball.”

Perez has been a bit cold at the plate this year amid the Royals’ sluggish 2026 campaign. He enters Thursday’s contest against the Detroit Tigers with 78 hits, 14 home runs, and 43 RBIs through 369 at-bats, giving him a .211 batting average while owning a .258 OBP.

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