KC Royals: Why Salvador Perez deserves to make it in the Hall of Fame

Will Salvador Perez be in the Hall of Fame someday? The KC Royals catcher definitely deserves to be.

It has been a long time since someone has gone into the MLB Hall of Fame as a member of the Kansas City Royals. George Brett was inducted into the exclusive club in 1999 without even a legit consideration for any former player making a top 10 in voting since. With the recent success of a franchise that went 29 years between playoff appearances, the Royals will be getting another player into the Hall of Fame. His name is Salvador Perez.

When taking a deep look at the number of Hall of Famers by team, it really is hard to believe the Royals only have one member. The Mariners, Padres, and Brewers have more members (two each).  The Montreal Expos, who formed the same year as the Royals and relocated to Washington DC in 2004, have three players. These are all franchises that have yet to win a World Series (the Royals have two World Series titles under their belt).

This isn’t intended to insult the career performances of players who are in Cooperstown. It’s more to try and understand why the Royals only have Brett in the Hall. Yes, those in the Baseball Writers Associate of America will typically look at individual performance over a career, but there should still be some considerations for those who have won championships. The Royals and their fans deserve to have more than just one player currently in Cooperstown.

There exists a very strong argument for Frank White to be in Cooperstown, but that argument is starting to fade. Rather it is time to start to justify and campaign for the next player that should and will be inducted from the Royals franchise.

Currently, there are 19 catchers with plaques in the Hall of Fame. It is worth the effort to compare Perez to at least the last four that have been inducted. That includes Ivan Rodriguez (2017), Mike Piazza (2016), Gary Carter (2003), and Carlton Fisk (2000).

Rodriguez played in 21 MLB seasons and was the winner of an incredible 13 Gold Gloves. In comparison, Perez has played in nine seasons and has already been awarded five Gold Gloves. It is most likely that he won’t reach Rodriguez with 13, but he has already been awarded more than FIsk (1), Carter (3), and Piazza (0) combined.

There is only one other Gold Glove-winning catcher in Cooperstown and that’s Johnny Bench (10). Perez sits currently with the sixth most awarded Gold Gloves at catcher all-time trailing Yadier Molina (9), Bob Boone (7), and Jim Sundberg (6).

Salvador Perez’s career numbers will start to climb as well. Although he won’t reach Piazza’s 427 or Fisk’s 376 career home runs, he should be able to get close to, if not pass, Rodriguez’s 311 career bombs. As of now, Perez sits with 152 home runs in his nine seasons. If he averages 17 over the next 9 seasons, it would place him at 306, which is enough to even put him close to the Royals team record of 317 by George Brett and clearly put him into the Hall of Fame.

There have been seven catchers to ever be named World Series MVP and Perez recently accomplished this feat in 2015. He was the first catcher since Pat Borders did it in 1992 for the Toronto Blue Jays. Only one catcher in the Hall of Fame has been named a World Series MVP and that is Bench.

Columnist Will Leitch wrote an article for MLB.com that outlines who he thought would be the one Hall of Famer on each team earlier this week and he said that every fanbase thinks that “someone, anyone, from their favorite team has a chance at the Hall someday”. For the Royals fanbase, he is correct with his assertion that Salvador Perez will be in the Hall of Fame someday.

In his article, Leitch mentions two other catchers Molina (Cardinals) and Buster Posey (Giants), but even within his article he almost questions whether either two of those players are worthy. Molina is worthy defensively, but only has eight more career home runs than Perez. It would be hard to imagine Molina not getting into the Hall at some point simply because he has been the standard for catchers for nearly a decade.

Posey has seemed to play himself out of Cooperstown with dwindling production at the plate. Posey has one Gold Glove along with a National League MVP (2012) but really doesn’t have the production numbers at the plate as Perez does.

When compared to these two players, Salvador Perez passes the eye test to be a Future Hall of Famer. Molina will probably make it and if he is worthy, then there is no doubt Perez will be inducted once his career comes to an end.

The only things that will keep Salvador Perez from being elected at some point would be injuries or somehow playing himself out of the Hall as Posey did.  Perez might not be a first-time ballot Hall of Fame player, but he will definitely be the next member of the KC Royals with a bronze plaque in Cooperstown.