KC Royals: Salvador Perez representing Royals in 2018 All-Star Game

The KC Royals have to be represented by someone in the 2018 All-Star Game and Salvador Perez was chosen as that guy. It’s his sixth straight nod to the big game.

In what has been an incredibly rough season for the Kansas City Royals, somebody had to wear the Royals cap in the 2018 All-Star Game and it’ll be catcher Salvador Perez. Perez has now made it to six straight All-Star Games. This will be the first time he hasn’t been the starter in several years.

Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that Perez was chosen as the Royals’ representative. Sure, he’s great defensively, but he has not been very good with the bat this year, hitting just .213 to this point in the season.

As mentioned above, Perez did not win the starting catcher job, losing out to Wilson Ramos of the Tampa Bay Rays. Ramos definitely deserves the nod, batting .289 at the moment. Perez will probably see some playing time, as it’s common for every single bench player to eventually make it onto the diamond.

The Kansas City Royals haven’t had just one representative in the All-Star Game since 2012 when Billy Butler made it for them. That was the year in which the game took place in Kansas City. Since then, the Royals have had at least two (including seven in 2015) playing for them in the All-Star Game.

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I really thought it’d come down to either Brad Keller or Whit Merrifield wearing the Royals hat in the summer classic. As good as Keller has been, however, pitching is tough to make it as an All-Star because the managers pick who goes and unfortunately Keller just might not have a big enough name to make it to Washington D.C.

Merrifield would have been a nice reserve choice because even though he was listed as a second baseman in the voting, he can play in the outfield as well. Merrifield is also the only Royals hitter worth talking about too and just came off a five-hit day.

It’s cool to see Salvador Perez make it to his sixth straight All-Star Game, but it almost feels like he was chosen just because it was the easiest pick. He’s the most well-known Royal and everyone loves him, but his offensive numbers do not scream All-Star at all.

This has been a bad season for the KC Royals and were it not a rule that all teams had to have someone in the All-Star Game, it’s likely the Royals would not have had a representative this year. Hey, at least Perez is better than the Mark Redmans of the world, right?