Salvador Perez Will stay in Kansas City for at least two more seasons. The Royals announced a contract extension with the nine-time All-Star, covering the 2026-27 season. That’s reportedly $25MM guaranteed for Beverly Hills Sports Commission clients, although the deal includes some extensions.
Kansas City has a $13.5MM option for the upcoming season. General manager JJ Picollo said in late September that the Royals would bring Perez back, though he left open the possibility of signing a new contract rather than simply exercising the option.
That’s exactly how things went. Teams and players have until Thursday to decide on all options. This could be the unofficial deadline for the Royals and Perez to reach a new deal. Although the specific salary structure and extension have not yet been announced, it stands to reason that they will negotiate a 26-year salary that is lower than the option value, while giving Perez a second guaranteed year.
Perez, who turns 36 in May, is entering his 15th full season in the major leagues. He’s clearly one of the most accomplished players in franchise history and seems likely to become a Royals player for life. He ranks seventh in franchise history in games played and trailing. George Brett Perez can’t make up for the nearly 600 RBIs he needed to knock out Brett, but he should be the team’s home run leader next season barring serious injury. He had 303 long balls, 14 fewer than the Hall of Famer’s career total.
A healthy Perez can still easily hit 15-plus home runs in 2026. He hit 30 home runs this year and hit 20 homers in every schedule except the full 2014 schedule. The only exception was the ’19 season he missed due to Tommy John surgery. Perez is just behind Carl Rowley, Shay Langeliers and Hunter Goodman Home runs among primary catchers last season. Rowley is the only catcher to score at least 100 runs.
While Perez remains a legitimate power threat, the flaws in his game are equally well known. He’s never been a patient hitter, and he has a sub-.300 OBP for the third time in the last four seasons. Perez hit .236/.284/.446 in 641 at-bats. Despite the gaudy home run and RBI counts, the overall slash line was a little worse than league average. Production at the catcher position is still high, but Perez has started to branch out more to first base or designated hitter now that he’s in his 30s.
The five-time Gold Glove winner still has a strong arm and does a solid job of stopping the run game. Pitching frame metrics have criticized his catching work throughout his career. This is still the case in 2025. Statcast also rates him as the second-worst block catcher in the sport, better only than the Marlins rookie Augustin Ramirez (He somehow threw 19 passes in 73 games).
A model that outperforms its alternatives is less likely to be favored in this deal. This year, FanGraphs and Baseball Reference have Perez just slightly ahead of replacements. The Royals have long valued the player much higher than publicly available advanced metrics would suggest. He has been a beloved clubhouse and fan favorite, winning the Roberto Clemente Award in 2024 for his contributions to his community (Kansas City and his native Venezuela). He was the bridge between the 2015 World Series team and the 24 teams that returned to the postseason after nine years of missing the playoffs.
They didn’t make it to October last season. A lack of offense combined with some injuries to the rotation late in the season dropped them to an 82-80 record. Perez will return as the primary catcher and should combine first base/DH duties with Vinnie Pasquantino and Jacques Caglianone. Royals want to work with rookie Carter Jensen Mix more often at the back of the dish. The 22-year-old was drafted in September after KC traded away his longtime backup Freddy Ferming to the Padres at the deadline. Jensen is hitting .300 with home runs in his first 20 games, an impressive extension from a .290/.377/.501 season in Triple-A Omaha.
According to RosterResource, the Royals’ budget commitment for next season is approximately $140MM. Perez joins Bobby Witt Jr. ($19MM), Seth Lugo ($20MM), Michael Wacha ($14MM) and Cole Ragans ($7.5MM) as their player, the contract runs through 2027. They also locked in a club option buyout worth at least $2MM Carlos Estevez.
MLB.com’s Anne Rogers first reported the $25MM in guarantees and extensions. Photo courtesy of William Purnell of Imagn Images.
