Kansas City Royals: Perez on pace for home run mark
By Ben Almquist
With all the hype surrounding Mike Moustakas and his home run pace, many have overlooked the fact that Salvador Perez is also on track to make the Kansas City Royals single-season home run list.
There’s a lot to be excited about right now for Kansas City Royals fans. The team appears to have finally figured out how to consistently play good baseball. Royals players are getting respect in All-Star voting. Mike Moustakas is crushing the ball at a torrid pace. However, one story line that isn’t getting enough talk is that Salvador Perez is also on an impressive home run pace.
The Royals catcher, now called the “face of the franchise“, has been a solid bat in the lineup for a while now. However, this year has seen him turn it on a bit. Currently, Salvador Perez is sitting at 15 home runs on the year. That puts him on a pace to surpass 30 home runs, which would get him onto the team’s single-season top-ten list for home runs.
Of course, it’s kind of easy to forget about Salvador Perez in the home run race with Mike Moustakas out-pacing him. The media will always focus on the bigger story, and of course that is Moustakas right now. However, that should not take away from what Perez is doing this year.
It’s A Big Deal
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In fact, in the long run, the Perez story line may be more important for the Royals. Having signed in the offseason, we know that Savly is a part of the team’s plans for the future. Meanwhile, though he should be in the plans, Mike Moustakas is viewed more often as a likely departure. Knowing that Salvador Perez can supply power to the lineup is huge for KC.
There’s another reason why this is a big story line. Should Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas continue on their current paces, there will be a major shake up to the Royals all-time-single-season-top-ten home run list. That shake up is that Mr. Royal himself, George Brett, would be knocked off the list.
Any time you can push an all-time great off of a list like this, it’s a big deal. That would be quite a feather in the cap for a guy who is the current “face of the franchise” to knock off the all-time “face of the franchise”.
So don’t forget to give Salvador Perez his due this year. What Perez is doing is huge for the Royals both in terms of helping the team win and in changing organization record books that have been largely untouched for a long time.
The Kansas City Royals are turning things around, and this team is suddenly exciting again. They Royals have a lot of things going for them right now. Salvador Perez is one of those things, and he needs to be getting the respect he deserves for it.