The Royals have a decision to make about Salvador Perez

Should he return after next year?

Salvador Perez is a Kansas City Royals institution. The future Royals Hall of Famer has a chance at Cooperstown itself, as his illustrious 13-season career has seen him appear in 1,552 games and nearly 11,000 innings behind the plate. Should he remain as a Royal for the next few years, he’s likely to eclipse the great George Brett for most home runs in franchise history.

But that’s a pretty big “if.” See, after almost two decades in the Royals organization, the Royals have a choice to make: whether or not to bring Salvy back. The main portion of the extension he signed in March of 2021 runs out at the end of this year, and the Royals must decide whether to exercise their $13.5 million club option.

Perez has remained productive into his mid-30s; he turns 35 in May, but just had one of the best seasons of his entire career. Kansas City must make a tricky decision regarding Perez: do they bring him back after this season ends, picking up his option? Do they sign him to a third extension with the club? Or, considering what’s in the prospect pipeline, do they let him walk?

Royals Big League Catching Talent

As RoyalTreatment recently noted, the Royals has exemplary organizational catching strength right now. It starts with Freddy Fermin, who has been a surprisingly good backup for Perez. Well, “backup” is selling Fred short—Perez played 765 innings at catcher last year, while Fermin played 663 innings; “co-starters” may be a better word. Could Fermin take over the majority of the reps as soon as this season? Maybe—and Baseball-Reference even thinks Fermin was more valuable than Salvy this year (3.0 bWAR vs 2.5 bWAR).

Fermin turns 30 in May, so he’s not a super long-term solution himself; when Salvy becomes a free agent, he’ll be in his age-31 season. It’s not that uncommon for catchers to stick around into their late-30s a la Drew Butera, Martin Maldonado, or Erik Kratz, although none of them were as consistently cromulent with the bat as Fermin and none of them carried the lion’s share of catching duties for very long.

Royals Minor League Catching Talent

The minor leagues are where the Royals really have some depth and probably more than one future big leaguer. Let’s start with Luca Tresh, whose 25th birthday is in just a few days and who should start at Triple-A. While not the most exciting player in the world, Tresh has shown power and plate discipline, with a Minor League career ISO of .171 and 10.7% walk rate. He could probably step up into a backup position and hold it down well enough.

Of course, Tresh isn’t the main draw here. His fellow Double-A catcher, Carter Jensen, has long intrigued me with exemplary command of the strike zone at such young ages. Jensen only turned 21 last July and finished a 41-game stretch in Double-A where he posted a .247 ISO and a 112 wRC+. Throughout his minor league career at levels where he has consistently been one of the youngest players on the team, he has walked at a 16.1% clip. I think he should be in consideration to be a top 100 overall prospect.

The big name to consider is Blake Mitchell, who the Royals nabbed with the eighth overall pick in the 2023 draft. Mitchell spent 2024 crushing High-A ball to the tune of a .238/.376/.439 triple slash, good for a 141 wRC+ in that environment in his age-19 season. Mitchell is one of only two true blue chip prospects in the minor league system, and his ceiling is enormous (even if his strikeout rates are also deeply concerning).

One sleeper to keep an eye on? Hyungchan Um, one of the system’s few Asian players. Um signed with the Royals out of high school rather than make his way to the Korean Baseball League draft, and he made his full season debut in A ball this year. It’ll be a while before he makes an impact, but his skills are intriguing.

So, What to Do With Salvy?

The Royals really have three approaches here: they can let Salvy walk at the end of 2025, declining their club option. They can pick up his club option for 2026. Or, they can offer him another extension. How Salvy plays this year will factor into the decision unless they ink him to an extension before the season starts, which they very may well want to.

Kansas City’s catching depth is one complication. Fermin is ready to take on the mantle of starting catcher if necessary, and both Tresh and Jensen should be ready by the end of the year. Mitchell could be ready at some point in 2026.

The other complication? Salvy’s days as a catcher may be numbered. As he ages, the Royals have been more and more cautious with putting him behind the plate, and Salvy’s days as a catching ironman are over. While he’s used as a DH more often, the real shift is that he’s playing first base more and more. From 2013 through 2022, Perez played a combined 51 innings at first base. In 2023, he played 182 innings there, and in 2024, he played 392 innings there.

As a result, the real question is if the Royals can afford to lose Salvy’s bat, no matter where it is. And I think that’s why the Royals will extend him for a third time, regardless of the club option: he’s just too valuable to the lineup. He’s a slugger and run producer who is a perfect fit behind guys like Bobby Witt Jr. and now Jonathan India.

And yet—is it smart to pay a 36-year-old bat first, low OBP player $13 million or more a year? That’s the question the Royals have to figure out.