Salvador Perez entered the 2021 season as the Kansas City Royals' all-time home run leader at the catcher position, an honor that he officially achieved in 2017 when he passed Mike Macfarlane with blast No. 104. Being the franchise leader in catcher home runs puts him in exclusive company, obviously, seeing as there are only so many teams for players to hold that title. But what Perez is doing in 2021, four years later, is much, much more impressive historical ground to be breaking.
A go-ahead grand slam in the sixth inning off the 31-year-old's bat was ultimately all the Royals needed to get the victory over the Mariners on Thursday night, and it kept his power surge alive and well.
His third homer in four games, and his sixth in the last dozen, the grand slam was No. 35 on the year for Perez, who'd already blown by his previous career high of 27. In hitting that home run, Salvy became the first American League catcher since Ivan Rodriguez with a 35-HR season — Pudge did so in 1999 — and with plenty of time left to go in the regular season, one has to wonder whether or not Perez can join the very exclusive group of backstops with 40 round-trippers in a single season. That's something Pudge never did, though three members of the group are in the Hall of Fame.
With over 30 games left on the schedule, it would frankly be more surprising if Perez didn't reach the 40-HR threshold, so perhaps the next question is whether or not he can break Bench's all-time record of 45 dingers in a year from the backstop position. And if he does that... well, you can probably argue that his $82 million extension was well worth every penny.
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