There’s no question that 2024 has been an excellent bounce-back campaign for Royals captain Salvador Perez.

Even though he made the All-Star team last season, it was far from an “All-Star” season for the Royals veteran catcher.

While he hit 23 home runs in 140 games, Salvy only posted an 86 wRC+ and a -0.4 fWAR, the worst career numbers in those respective categories. As a result, many Royals fans were skeptical that Salvy should be a long-term option behind the plate in Kansas City, especially after he drew some trade interest at last year’s Trade Deadline.

Royals GM JJ Picollo decided to keep Salvy around in 2024 (despite rumors of possible trades to the White Sox and Marlins), which has paid off.

Salvy has already surpassed his 2023 HR mark by two home runs (25) in one fewer game. He also has a 117 wRC+ and a 2.9 fWAR, the latter being his best mark in that category since 2013 (when he posted a 3.2 fWAR). In addition to making the All-Star team again, Salvy also ranks third in fWAR of catchers in the American League with 300 or more plate appearances.

There’s no question that Salvy has been a much-improved hitter this season. In addition to posting better results, his Process+ rolling chart in 2024 is a 180-degree turn from what he did in 2023, as seen in the chart comparison below.

Salvy still possesses the same power and questionable decision-making ability at the plate. However, he has been much better at making contact, which has helped keep his Process+ above league average, unlike last season, when it was below average for most of the season.

Even though Salvy’s hitting performance has been a boost to this Royals club and key to their remarkable turnaround from last year’s 56-win campaign, Salvy’s defense may be the more heralded story in 2024.

According to Fangraphs, Salvy has a Def (fielding runs above average plus positional adjustment) of 3.7 runs above average. Since 2016, Salvy has only had a positive Def twice over that timespan: 2017 and 2020. Last year, he was 8.5 runs below average. In 2022, he was 9.1 runs below average.

Thus, this has been a remarkable defensive turnaround, which should make Royals fans wonder if Salvy is experiencing a defensive renaissance at 34.

Let’s examine what has been vital to Salvy’s strong defense behind the plate this year and whether this can be sustainable for 2025 and beyond.

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Salvy’s Framing Improvement

Some baseball minds have questioned Salvy’s Hall of Fame candidacy because of his catching defensive metrics. According to Savant, his catching defense has been 70 runs below average since 2016, when catching metrics became more available and measurable.

His blocking and ability to throw runners out have been serviceable since 2016. However, framing has heavily weighed down his overall catching numbers, as seen in the table below.

Over his career, he’s been 89 runs below average in the framing category. On the flip side, he’s been one run above average in blocking and 18 runs above average in the stealing category. Thus, if Salvy were a slightly below-average framer in his career, his Hall of Fame candidacy wouldn’t be discussed.

However, as Royals fans can see in the table above, he’s seen remarkable improvement in 2024 in the area of framing. He’s been precisely average, with a zero-run mark, a seven-run improvement from 2023, an eight-run improvement from 2022, and an 18-run improvement from 2021.

As a result, he’s been two catcher runs ABOVE average this season, the second time he’s been above-average in Statcast Catcher Runs since 2016 (and in 2020, it was only a 37-game sample).

How has Salvy improved so much? A big reason can be credited to bench coach Paul Hoover and Salvy’s work the past couple of seasons, which focused on getting Salvy closer to the pitcher in his catching setup.

In April, Kansas City Star sports writer Jesse Newell wrote a story for the Star about Salvy’s framing improvement. In Newell’s piece, Hoover talked about getting Salvy closer to the plate to improve his ability to garner extra strikes.

Hoover — previously catching coordinator for the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that specializes in capitalizing on small edges like pitch-framing — knew one thing was most important: Perez had to scoot up. Because he was so far back from the hitter, Perez was catching low pitches further away from the plate…

Making a change took trust. Perez had to believe in Hoover that getting closer to batters wasn’t going to result in his glove getting hit by additional swings. Hoover also communicated that moving up meant foul tips would hit Perez’s mitt more often, meaning he’d get hit less by fouls behind the plate. “He was super far away from the plate two years ago — probably one of the worst,” Hoover said. “And now he’s up there with the best guys.”

Since the article in April, Salvy has regressed a little but still has maintained one of the best framing seasons in his career.

His framing ranks in the 61st percentile via Savant. Last year, it ranked in the 10th percentile. Furthermore, he has generated a strike rate of 48.1%, the best mark in his career in an entire season of play (he had a higher mark in 2020, as seen below).

As Royals fans can see in the table above, Salvy’s most significant growth in terms of framing zone has been in the lower part of the strike zone, specifically zones 17 through 19.

Zone 17 has seen an 18.4% improvement, Zone 18 has a 4.9% improvement, and Zone 19 has a 5.2% improvement.

Hoover preached to Salvy that moving up closer to the plate would help him catch more strikes in the lower parts of the strike zone. So far, the data has proved that not only was Hoover right, but Salvy has made the proper adjustments in 2024.

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Can Salvy Keep This Up in 2025 (And Beyond)?

The Royals have improved by framing each season since Matt Quatraro became manager after the 2022 season.

In Mike Matheny’s last season as manager, the Royals ranked dead last in framing runs with a -21 mark. In 2023, they improved to 23rd with a -6 mark. This year? They rank 14th with a zero-run mark.

Thus, Salvy is not the only one succeeding in framing. Freddy Fermin has also been solid, though he’s been slightly behind Salvy this year in this category.

To see Salvy as one run better than Fermin and 0.2% better in strike rate is remarkable progress, especially considering how they rated last season via Savant.

Fermin was eight runs better than Salvy and had a 3.7% better strike rate in 2023. Hence, the framing numbers are more of a testament to Salvy’s improvement than anything Fermin has done defensively (Fermin has improved his strike rate by 0.3%).

That said, is this framing improvement sustainable for next season and beyond?

According to Cot’s Contract data, Salvy has one more guaranteed season. In 2026, the Royals have a club option for $13.5 million. I would guess that the Royals would either not exercise the club option and let Salvy become a free agent or ink an extension allowing Salvy to finish his career in Kansas City.

For Salvy to be worth that possible extension, he must show that he can maintain his framing performance, especially during his 36 to 39 seasons (which is likely the years the extension would cover).

A good benchmark for expectations of Salvy could be Yadier Molina, who played until his age-39 season and retired after (which was 2022).

Let’s examine his Statcast data to see how Molina fared defensively during his final three seasons in the league.

From 2019 to 2022, Molina was ten runs above average and five runs above average in the framing category. He had one negative-run season in 2021 but generated positive framing runs in 2020 and 2022.

Now, Salvy doesn’t have Molina’s framing track record. Conversely, Salvy is a much better throwing catcher than Molina, so as long as Salvy can be average in the framing category like he’s been this season, then it’s possible that he could provide similar positive catching defensive value later in his career.

Additionally, Salvy has a much greater hitting and power upside than Molina, though it’s likely that his power will decline somewhat when he reaches his age-36 season. Even then, Molina only topped out at 11 home runs in a season during those three years. Salvy likely will still be a 15-20 HR hitter, at the very least.

Nonetheless, the Royals are in an intriguing long-term situation with Salvy. After last year, it seemed like he would likely be gone either this year or next.

Now? With his revamped framing?

Keeping him around for a few years after 2025 could make more sense, even with talented catchers like Carter Jensen and Blake Mitchell waiting in the Royals system and maybe ready for a shot in a few seasons.

Photo Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports