Kansas City Royals need to extend Salvador Perez

Salvador Perez is the most important player on the Kansas City Royals‘ roster and that’s why they need to extend him past the 2021 season.

Most teams want to try and extend their younger players to ensure they’re around for their best seasons, but the Royals aren’t like most teams. They’re a small organization and really do have to rely on drafting and their farm system to get them to the next level.

That’s why when Will Leitch of MLB.com wrote an article with who each team should extend, it was no surprise that he had Perez listed for the Royals.

"There are younger players here, but it still wouldn’t feel like the Royals without Sal Perez, who hits free agency after next season."

Perez is 30 years old and turns 31 in May, but he’s still proving that he can perform at a high level, both at the plate and behind the dish. He had one of his best seasons in quite some time in 2020 and that came after missing the entire 2019 season due to injury. Perez batted .333 in the shortened 2020 season.

The Kansas City Royals need to keep Salvador Perez past this season.

Perez’s contract is up after the 2021 season and while there was once speculation that he could be a trade candidate, the consensus now is that the Royals want to try and compete this year. If that’s the case, Perez needs to be extended so he can continue to be this team’s catcher for the next few years.

If an extension is offered, the Royals definitely shouldn’t get carried away. Catchers take a beating with all of the squatting and maneuvering they do behind the dish, so that’s why oftentimes they’ll switch to another position later on in their career (typically first base). For the Royals, however, Carlos Santana is going to be the team’s first baseman for at least the next two years, so Perez will stay at catcher.

While extending Perez does make sense, he isn’t immune to getting injured and that’s why this deal can’t be more than two years if it does happen. Perez playing for any other team would be a weird sight and it’s likely that if a reasonable extension is offered, he’d gladly take it so that he could be Forever Royal.

This is definitely a move that makes sense for the Kansas City Royals and hopefully, the deal gets done sooner rather than later.