Kansas City Royals Bold Predictions for 2015

Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Before Salvador Perez fell off the map in the second half of 2014, he was on pace for a Silver Slugger caliber season. He went into the All-Star break with a .765 OPS and 11 homers. The eventual winner, Yan Gomes, headed into the break with a .742 OPS and 12 homers. Sal’s career numbers actually side with his strong first half, so it is reasonable to believe that he just ran out of gas in the second half.

The interesting aspect of this matchup is that Gomes and Perez had very similar top layer numbers. Gomes out homered Sal (21) but Sal wasn’t far behind (17). Neither guy is apt at drawing walks, as both garnering below 25 free passes in 2014, but Gomes pedestrian OBP (.313) still left Sal’s in the dirt (.289), which explains the larger gap in OPS. Gomes OPS was nearly 100 points higher than Perez and his OPS+ of 122 blew Sal’s gnarly 90 OPS+ out of the water.

However, we have seen Sal hit and I don’t think it’s crazy to envision, with a few more days off, that hits more like his 2014 first half self rather than his second half self. His biggest issue is his plate discipline, which is a fixable problem. He has very good contact skills and power upside. If he taps back into those, a Silver Slugger isn’t out of the question. It’s easy to forget that just a few years ago, any offense from Sal would have been icing on the cake. However, on a team starved for offense, his output is needed more than we expected back when he debuted. I would look for him to get back to the guy he was before he hit the wall last season, and that could very well put him in the Silver Slugger discussion.

Next: A few quick thoughts