KC Royals should strongly consider trading Salvador Perez this offseason

Salvador Perez has been kicking butt and taking names in 2020 and hopefully that will present an opportunity for the KC Royals to trade him this offseason.

After missing the entire 2019 season due to injury, Salvador Perez has been crushing it for the Kansas City Royals in 2020. The 30-year-old catcher has battled injuries over the past few years, but with him playing as well as he is right now, there might not be another chance for the team to explore trading him.

Prior to his missed season, Perez had made it to 6 straight All-Star games and was the World Series MVP for the Royals in 2015. He’s been the face of the franchise since the original “Process” that saw the team make it to back to back World Series in 2014 and 2015.

Many thought that missing an entire year could be the end of Perez’s dominance, but the Royals catcher has been better than ever this season. He’s appeared in 32 games as of this writing and is slashing .346/.363/.615 with 8 home runs and 24 RBI in 130 at bats.

With Salvador Perez having this kind of season, the KC Royals need to look into trading him.

Teams aren’t stupid. They know Perez is 30 years old and will turn 31 next May and for a catcher, that’s ancient. With all of the squatting that catchers do on a daily basis, teams tend to move their catcher to another position later on in their career and we’ve seen that in 2020, as the Royals have slotted Perez at first base a few times in recent years.

If a team were looking to add Perez, it’d be one who was in contention and just needing an extra pop. Catchers aren’t always the best at the plate, but Perez has consistently been one of the best sluggers at the position, making him more appealing.

He’s been doing well in a small sample size this year, but the Royals shouldn’t back away from trying to trade him. They’re prone to holding onto players too long and then their value being gone, but they can’t do that this offseason.

If they want to get a young, strong bat for the future, trading players like Perez, Whit Merrifield, and Jorge Soler is something Dayton Moore needs to strongly consider doing because those players are going to be past their prime the next time the team is ready to contend.

It’d be tough for Royals fans to see Salvador Perez in another uniform because of what he means to this organization, but it’s time to look ahead to the next wave of talent and how the Royals can get back to the World Series as quickly as possible.

Trading Salvador Perez is the best way to help in speeding that process along.