How ABS could boost Salvador Perez’s legacy—and help the Royals in 2026

Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez is undoubtedly the franchise's most impactful catcher. From his role in the 2014 AL Wild Card comeback, the 2015 World Series win, and his record-setting 2021 season, the Venezuelan has captured the hearts of Royals fans everywhere.

All of those moments, and many of his highlights, have come from his time at the plate, rather than behind it. With advanced analytics coming more and more to the forefront of baseball, Perez's struggles at framing pitches have been a popular talking point among his critics.

While a catcher's ability to steal strikes can have an impact across the season, that impact may be lessened after Tuesday's development.

On Tuesday, MLB’s 11-man competition committee approved the Automated Ball/Strike System (ABS) coming to the big leagues in 2026. ABS is nothing new to minor-league fans, who have seen the system in effect since 2019, with some different models tried at Triple-A since 2022. ABS came close to MLB in spring training and at this year's All-Star Game, but now it will be a feature for a full season.

How ABS works, the technology behind it, all of that is going to be rehashed this winter and certainly ahead of next season's beginning. But even with just two challenges per game, it is fair to wonder how ABS will impact a catcher's value.

Human umpires will still make the calls; it will just be ABS proving them right or wrong in the challenge-based system. Could this change help raise Perez's perceived value behind the plate, allowing his ability to throw out would-be basestealers and bat shine more as his career winds down?

Salvador Perez may be able to extend his catching career just a bit longer thanks to ABS.

For those who believe framing isn't a significant hole in Perez's game, they are sorely mistaken. According to Baseball Savant's Catcher Framing Runs, Perez's -19 runs since 2022 is tied for seventh-worst in MLB.

That even accounts for an above-league-average year in 2024, which was cancelled out by his -6 runs in 2025. If fans need more of a big-picture look, Baseball Savant began tracking the data related to framing in 2018. Since then, Perez has caught the seventh-most pitches at 44,954. In that same span, his astounding -44 Catcher Framing Runs are the league's worst by an eight-run margin.

It is not a good part of Perez's game, and it is a noticeable flaw. Last season offered hope that he was getting better results, but 2025 dashed those hopes and proved last season was an outlier.

But, with so many pitches caught and that veteran experience, Perez may benefit from ABS more than some. It isn't to say that just because he has more pitches caught that he has a better feeling of balls and strikes, but the correlation doesn't feel like a stretch.

Ultimately, the fans and players will benefit from ABS in MLB starting next season, and hopefully the system's introduction will help Perez behind the plate if Kansas City so chooses to.

Last season, Perez played less and less behind the plate. After dominating the starting role for a decade, Perez and Freddy Fermin split the workload 60-40 behind the plate, as Perez played more first base and designated hitter.

That coincided with a resurgent year at the plate, statistically his best since 2021. A school of thought was that the shift would help extend Perez's productive years, and was the start of a trend away from Perez the catcher and more so Perez the first baseman. That did not come to fruition in 2025, however, and the correlation with his batting numbers suffering deserves further inspection.

The arrival of Carter Jensen gives Kansas City a reasonable player to supplant Perez at catcher, but the powers that be need to make that move a reality.

Perez is known for his grittiness and love of catching, so if the team captain pushes to stay behind the plate, he will likely get that way.

But if fans learned anything about Perez from his response to trade rumors, they know he will do whatever it takes to help the Royals win. ABS just may help him do so at his natural position for a bit longer.