Kansas City Royals and Salvador Perez – No Rest for the Weary

After seeing Salvador Perez take a foul ball off the face mask a few nights ago versus the Indians (an injury that knocked him out for the rest of that night and the following game), it got me thinking about catchers and durability. Perez, as we know, rarely gets a day off  while playing the toughest, most physically demanding position in baseball.  Is Perez headed for another long season capped off with an offensive collapse?

After such a collapse in 2014 that some blame on his being worn out over the long season, you’d think Ned Yost would make a point of working in regular days off for Sal…but to this point, it’s not happening. Perez has played in 49 of 52 games this year, appearing in 94 percent of the Royals matchups. If this pace continues, he’ll play in about 152 games in 2015. That amount of games would put him in a tie for tenth most games played at catcher (in one season) ever. The most recent anyone has played more games at catcher was in 1982, when Gary Carter caught in 153 games.

Carter was a durable catcher, topping 140 games at the position seven times, and twice surpassing 150 games. Carter was also a smaller guy at 6’2 and about 205 pounds. Perez on the other hand is 6’3 and 240 pounds. Someone that big is unlikely to absorb the wear and tear of playing the position as well as Carter once did.

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Baseball seems to have caught on to this trend…the last time anyone caught more games than Perez did in 2014 was in 2008 when Jason Kendall and Russell Martin caught in 149 games each. Kendall matched the 146 game mark two other times in 2003 and 2004, and Brad Ausmus caught 150 games in 2000 with Kendall once again racking up 147 games behind the dish that same year.

So from 2000 through 2014, the 146 game mark has been topped just eight times (including Perez) and four of those came from Jason Kendall. Kendall steadily caught a lot of games his entire 15 year career, but the last time he had an above average offensive year? His age 30 season in 2004. After that, he never reached a 100 OPS+ again, and only topped 80 three times from 2005 until retiring in 2010. And Kendall, by the way, was 6’ tall and 181 pounds. Perez outweighs Kendall by roughly 60 pounds.

In his 15 year career, Kendall played 2,025 games at catcher for a total of 17,478 innings for an average of 135 games and 1,165 innings played. In Carter’s 19 years, he tallied 2,056 games and 17,369 innings for averages of 108 and 914, respectively.

What about the guy some consider to be one of the best catchers of all time…Ivan Rodriguez? Once again, a much smaller frame than Perez – Pudge stood 5’9 and weighed in at 205 pounds, he totaled 2,427 games at catcher in his 21 years, for a total of 20,348 innings and averages of 115 games and 969 innings.

Lastly, let’s a take a look at a more contemporary peer…the guy Sal is slowly taking the mantle of “Best Catcher in the Game” from…Yadier Molina. The Cardinals backstop is closest in weight to Sal at about 220 pounds, although he stands just 5’11, four inches shorter than Perez. That said…Molina’s height and weight distribution is pretty similar to Sal’s. Molina, through 2014, had 1,302 games behind the plate for a total of 10,877 innings. That works out to 118 games and 989 innings on average. The Cardinals definitely seem to be managing his workload well, with Molina only topping 130 games at catcher 4 times in his career.

May 7, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez (13) reacts after being hit in the foot by a pitch in the sixth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals won 7-4. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

So what does all of this mean for Perez? It’s hard to say how a lack of rest may or may not hurt him, as he’s only got a couple of full seasons under his belt. In 2013 he logged 1,113 innings at catcher. That season, he managed a final slash line of .292/.323/.433 after dipping down to .277/.312/.404 as of September 2 that year. So fatigue didn’t seem to hurt him and the offensive numbers seemed to ebb and flow throughout the year just like they would with any batter.

2014, though, was a different story. Perez had 1,248 innings at catcher and after reaching a slash of .281/.322/.427 on July 27, he went into a free fall. At that point, Perez had a .749 OPS. By the end of August, his OPS had dropped 38 points to .711 and as of September 14 was below .700, dropping all the way to .692 by the end of the regular season (a .260/.289/.403 final slash line). And yes, we all remember the Wild Card heroics…but in the postseason, Perez continued to struggle, posting an overall slash of .207/.233/.276 in 15 games.

The grind of 162 games could wear out any player at any position, but I think it’s a safe bet that if a guy playing the most physically demanding position in the league got, lets say four days of rest per month…it couldn’t hurt, and would still result in 138 games behind the plate. I know the drop in production from Perez to a backup catcher is steep…but the drop from a rested Perez to a worn out Perez isn’t great, either.

In the end, maybe it doesn’t mean much of anything…or maybe the 146 games (143 starts and 124 complete games) at catcher was too much of a grind for Sal last year. I guess 2015 is the year we might find out, and it should certainly be on the minds of both Perez and the Royals front office with the recent contract rumblings…

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