{"id":2418636,"date":"2026-05-15T20:13:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2418636"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:13:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:13:58","slug":"what-should-the-royals-do-with-a-struggling-salvador-perez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/what-should-the-royals-do-with-a-struggling-salvador-perez\/","title":{"rendered":"What should the Royals do with a struggling Salvador Perez?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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No one wants to watch a legend fade, and yet that\u2019s often what happens when it comes to larger-than-life figures in the world of entertainment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Marlon Brando stars in The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Willie Mays stumbles in a Mets uniform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Michael Jordan lags for the Wizards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Johnny Unitas lumbers for the Chargers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gordie Howe finishes his career a Whaler.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pel\u00e9 retires with the Cosmos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those are just a few examples.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One happening in front of Kansas City\u2019s very eyes, on a nightly basis, is the end of Salvador Perez. Entering play on Friday, Salvy is hitting just .200\/.239\/.339. Out of 171 qualified Major League hitters, he ranks 164th in wRC+<\/a>. And the underlying metrics are\u2026not good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What makes this even tougher is that Perez has only played for the Royals, and it seems the two cannot break apart. Salvy\u2019s not going anywhere on his own, and the Royals aren\u2019t pushing him out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It brings to mind Stan Musial hitting only .255 in his last year with the Cardinals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And Mickey Mantle cratering to a .237 in 1968, his last season, to bring his career average under .300.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And Ozzie Smith butting heads with new manager Tony La Russa, appearing in only 82 games in the 1996 season, his last.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s a startling image, watching a once feared batter, the leader of the team, struggle, and struggle badly. To make the situation even tougher: the Royals are trying to win. After making the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons back in 2024, the team took a step back last year but still managed to finish with a winning record. This year was supposed to be a step forward, toward getting back to the postseason, even competing for the division title.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This year has not gone according to plan, and in the middle of it all is the aging legend, the last link between the 2014-2015 teams and this new era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How should the Royals handle Salvador Perez going forward? There are four ways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This seems like the least likely option. Manager Matt Quatraro gave Perez an off day earlier this year, calling it a mental breather, a comment with which Perez took umbrage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It only lasted one game. The Royals could approach Perez before<\/em> benching him, of course, as he is the elder statesman on the team and deserves to not be blindsided by such a momentous decision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But this won\u2019t happen, for several reasons. One is that Perez feels like he can still produce, so he wouldn\u2019t remain shy about his feelings. He went to X with the mental breather situation, but there are more public ways to express his displeasure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Secondly, there\u2019s not a great replacement on the roster. I always come back to this: If not him, who? The Royals carry two other catchers in Carter Jensen and Elias Diaz. Jensen has recently struggled and Diaz is 35 and without a hit in the month of May. Neither scream upgrade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Third, the backlash. As much as readers of Royals Review<\/em> may want to see Perez ride the pine for a bit, there are even more fans who would become incensed if the organization benched him, with or without his knowledge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This is the best option: move him out of the cleanup spot. Sure, he had four hits in the series against the White Sox, but three of them were singles. He homered in his first at-bat Tuesday night, which was great, but there have been more at-bats where he\u2019s swinging at damn near everything, either missing the pitches for ugly strikeouts or grounding into sure double-plays. He has no speed. He never has, but he\u2019s slowed down from that<\/em>. It looks like he\u2019s standing in quicksand out there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Again, though: If not him, who?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dropping him in the lineup would only the be first step. Quatraro would have to revamp the entire lineup because swapping Perez with someone beneath him won\u2019t fix things. Outside of Bobby Witt Jr. and, to a lesser extent, Maikel Garcia, no one is producing. Nick Loftin is playing well, but that\u2019s mainly against lefties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The most likely scenario: Q keeps Perez in the cleanup spot on a daily basis while sometimes putting him behind home plate and sometimes slotting him in the lineup as the DH.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Opting for this seems like madness. Salvy\u2019s clearly slowing down, needs more time off, and to be put in a less stressful role. Running him into the ground isn\u2019t going to solve this problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I\u2019m loathe to write this, but Perez\u2019s poor reaction to getting a mental breather shows he isn\u2019t quite the leader we fans make him out to be. He needs to accept reality, put his team first, and insist on not<\/em> staying the course.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Only Salvador Perez can prevent this option from happening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A trip to the injury list<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He looks kinda banged up, right? Joel Goldberg mentioned on the Tuesday night television broadcast that Perez has been battling a host of maladies to his hips and groin. That doesn\u2019t sound ideal for anyone let alone a starting Major League catcher.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Maybe he doesn\u2019t need a mental breather but a physical one. Throw him on the IL and see if he heals up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It at least buys some time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Max<\/div>\n

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\"Royals<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one wants to watch a legend fade, and yet that\u2019s often what happens when it comes to larger-than-life figures in the world of entertainment. Marlon Brando stars in The Island of Dr. Moreau. Willie Mays stumbles in a Mets uniform. Michael Jordan lags for the Wizards. Johnny Unitas lumbers for the Chargers. Gordie Howe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2418637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[445712,340874],"class_list":["post-2418636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-kansas-city-royals-analysis","tag-royals-editorials-reactions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/What-should-the-Royals-do-with-a-struggling-Salvador-Perez.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2418636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418638,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418636\/revisions\/2418638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2418637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2418636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2418636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2418636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}