4 big milestones Salvador Pérez can reach with the KC Royals in 2025

The 14th season of his illustrious major league career begins for Salvador Pérez when the Kansas City Royals host the Cleveland Guardians on March 27 at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals' team captain will be coming off one of his best-ever seasons after helping the club back to relevance and the playoffs this year, but considering he turns 35 in May and spends so much of his time at the most physically taxing position on the diamond, duplicating his superb 2024 performance could be difficult.

Whether Pérez has another great season, then, remains to be seen. But even with a less spectacular 2025, he can reach some important career milestones in the final guaranteed season of the then-club record contract he signed in 2021. Always a team-first player, Pérez will focus and concentrate more on helping the Royals return to the postseason in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2015, but watching him close in on four individual marks will be interesting.

Here are four things fans can look forward to Pérez trying to accomplish in 2025.

A good season can get Salvador Pérez to a big home run mark

Pérez will begin the 2025 campaign 27 homers shy of the coveted 300 plateau. He matched that number for the third time in 2024, and he's certainly capable of doing it again, so look for him to reach 300 next season.

The 48 homers he slammed in his excellent record-breaking 2021 campaign tied him with Jorge Soler for the club's single-season home run record. Should he reach, but not surpass, 27 again next season, he'll move tantalizingly close to Hall of Famer George Brett's franchise record of 317. That would put Pérez, who's second with 273, on track to supplant Brett in 2026.

A major RBI plateau is within Salvador Pérez's reach

Although Pérez didn't top his career-high 121 RBI in 2024, the 104 runs he drove in marked the second time he's collected at least 100 in a season. He'll start 2025 needing 84 to reach 1,000 for his career — that task is certainly doable for Pérez, who's knocked in at least 80 runs five times and just missed that total with 79 in 2013 and 76 in 2022.

The nine-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger winner ranks fourth on the Royals' all-time RBI list with 916. Reaching 1,000 in 2025 will get him past Amos Otis' 992 for third place and leave him just 12 behind Hal McRae for second. Brett is well ahead of the field with 1,596.

The KC Royals' captain has a good shot at a nice doubles achievement

As a hitter, Perez is best known for homering, driving in runs and, although he's improving in the area, swinging at too many bad pitches.

But he also hits his share of doubles and by doubling just 15 times next year — a number he's failed to reach only in his 39-game rookie season in 2011, his 76-game 2012 campaign, and pandemic-truncated 2020 season — he'll have 300 for his career. While that may not sound like many, remember, Pérez isn't blessed with great speed on the basepaths.

Getting his 300th double will boost Pérez past Mike Sweeney's 297 for sixth place on KC's all-time list, but leave him well short of fifth-place Alex Gordon's 357. Brett's team record 665 two-baggers is simply out of Pérez's reach.

Salvador Pérez can also reach a good defensive number

Although he's still primarily a catcher, the Royals' decision to deploy Pérez more frequently at first base and DH means they want to reduce the heavy wear and tear occasioned by his working behind the plate for so long. But spending less time catching also means he'll get fewer chances to significantly increase the number of would-be base stealers he's thrown out throughout his career.

The best catcher the club has ever had will enter the 2025 campaign having gunned down 237 runners, so he needs 13 more to reach 250. Whether he can get those 13 next season, though, is a tough call — he hasn't thrown out that many since 2021, when he caught 18 trying to steal. Freddy Fermin's emergence as an excellent backstop suggests Pérez may catch even less, so throwing out that 250th runner may have to wait until 2026.