Salvador Perez’s Second-Half Rebound Offers Royals Hope
Published on November 3, 2026: Kansas City Royals catcher and designated hitter Salvador Perez struggled overall in 2026 but improved after a late-June move away from regular catching duties.
Salvador Perez’s 2026 season was his weakest at the plate, but a change in role late in June brought a marked improvement. The Kansas City Royals shifted him from primary catcher to a first-base and designated-hitter mix after he had logged nearly 12,000 career innings behind the plate.
Before June 25, Perez posted a .229 batting average, .274 on-base percentage and .383 slugging percentage for the full season, with a .656 OPS and 77 wRC+. His performance was especially poor in June, when his wRC+ was 20. In the period before the change, his wRC+ was 54, despite 10 home runs, nine doubles and 30 RBIs.
From June 25 onward, he caught in seven games and played first base in 19, while taking on a primary designated-hitter role. In that stretch, he hit .256/.302/.432, with a .734 OPS and a 99 wRC+, close to league average. His expected weighted on-base average also rose from .302 earlier in the season to .352 from June 26 onward.
Perez’s underlying contact figures were stronger than his overall results: his season barrel rate was 10.7%, his hard-hit rate 42.7%, and his strikeout rate 19%. Those figures improved further in the period after the role change. His defense behind the plate had also shown signs of decline, though he threw out 35% of attempted base stealers. He was also highly successful challenging close pitches through the league’s automated ball-strike system, winning 46 of 65 challenges as a catcher.
Perez set the Royals’ career home-run record, surpassing George Brett. The second-half performance offers a basis for optimism about 2027, when the source expects his role to remain focused on designated hitter duties and first base.