Royals Rumors: Salvador Perez Extension Talks Are Open

The latest KC Royals rumors indicate the team has opened contract extension discussions with All Star catcher.

In 2012, the KC Royals signed catcher Salvador Perez to a five-year extension worth $7 million guaranteed. With three team options and some incentives, the deal locked up Perez through the 2019 season for less than $30 million.

It’s been called one of the team-friendly deals in baseball history. Or in other words, it’s a terrible deal for Perez.

Since then, all Salvy has done is win a World Series MVP trophy, win three consecutive Gold Glove awards and the lead a Royals defense and pitching staff to two World Series appearances.

According to CBS Sports‘ Jon Heyman, though, the Royals and Perez have opened up extension talks in hopes of making him a Royal for life:

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"The Perez camp has mentioned deals for stars such as Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria and Ryan Braun as comps in the early going for Perez, but Kansas City considers those deals to be “bad deals.”"

Perez was signed by the Royals as an amateur free agent in 2006. In his five-year MLB career to date, which includes 545 games played, he’s earned about $5 million. (Baseball-Reference) The Royals paid catcher Miguel Olivo about that same amount in two seasons (2008, 2009).

While no Royals fans, and hopefully no one in Royals management, want to see Salvy get yanked around, frustrated and underpaid, the young Venezuelan did sign his name on the line. It’s not something he can undo.

Even if he didn’t know what he was getting into, according to the KC Star:

"“I (didn’t) know what arbitration was. I (didn’t) know free agency. After I signed the deal, I heard from a lot of players: ‘Why are you doing that? You don’t know what kind of player you are.’”"

Certainly there’s a deal to work out, but what’s fair between the two sides?

On the high end: Brian McCann earned $17 million in base salary last season. Buster Posey earned $16.5 million; Yadier Molina made $15 million. On the lower end: Alex Avila made $5.4 million in base salary last season. A.J. Ellis made $4.25 million and Jason Castro made $4 million. All made more than Salvador Perez.

If the Royals can meet somewhere in the middle there – when the time is right – perhaps Perez can reach the $10 million per season mark soon. With a contract already in place, nothing else is guaranteed.

All I know is this: an unhappy Salvy is an unhappy lockerroom, and unhappy lockerrooms don’t win the World Series.

Next: Royals: Five Pitchers To Target In Free Agency

Salvador Perez deserves more dollars than he’s set to make in the next four seasons, but the Royals hold most of the leverage. What do you think the Royals should do?