Salvador Perez chasing major milestones with KC Royals

Back on Christmas Eve, when KC Royals fans were beginning to think in earnest about what the 2024 season might bring, we wrote about Salvador Perez's pursuit of career milestones and the important individual offensive marks he could achieve this year.

Fortunately for Perez and the Royals, he's having one of the best campaigns of his 13-year major league career. After going 0-for-4 with an RBI Sunday in Kansas City's important series sweep-clinching victory over Cincinnati, he's slashing .276/.335/.470 with 22 home runs and 82 RBI. And with 38 games left on his team's regular season slate, those numbers could get even better.

Here's how his continuing assault on individual marks is going.

Salvador Perez has already reached four milestones

This season began with Perez tantalizingly close to four key career highs — he needed to score just two runs to reach 600, hit four home runs to get to 250, collect 89 hits to reach 1,500, and come to bat 389 times to reach 6,000 plate appearances.

Done.

Perez scored his 599th and 600th runs in the final game of the Royals' first homestand. Two weeks later, during an early season hot streak, he tagged former Royals prospect and current Mets' hurler Sean Manaea for his 250th homer, a two-run blast at Citi Field that helped Kansas City to an 11-7 victory. And he reached the 1,500-hit plateau July 7 with a second-inning single at Colorado; it was the first of two hits he collected in KC's lopsided 10-1 victory.

The Royals' nine-time All-Star also made it to 6,000 plate appearances earlier this season and has 6,106 through Sunday.

What marks could Salvador Perez still achieve this season?

Runs Batted In. Perez will eventually get to 1,000 RBI, but it won't be this year. However, the run Bobby Witt Jr. scored on Perez's third-inning sacrifice fly Sunday represented the latter player's 894th career RBI, so he's a cinch to reach 900 before the regular season concludes Sept. 29 in Atlanta.

Although the 82 runs Perez has driven in this year are the second most he's collected in a single season, his major league-leading 121 RBI in 2021 remains his best mark for a full campaign and isn't in danger this season.

Home Runs. Hitting 300 homers is a major accomplishment. Perez won't get there this year, but he's closing in on 275. His last homer, an Aug. 13 solo shot against Minnesota at Target Field, was his 268th, so he needs seven more to reach 275 this season. And with 38 games left, he can get there ... but it won't be easy.

What Perez can't achieve this year is matching the club-record 48 homers he hit in 2021. But he can hit the second-most of his career: he has 22 now and needs six more to surpass the 27 he clubbed in both 2017 and 2018.

Runs. Since scoring that 600th run back in March, Perez has crossed the plate 48 more times. That leaves him two short of 650 for his career and 27 short of 675; he'll definitely score twice more in 2024 to reach the former mark, but 675 will probably have to wait until 2025.

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