NEW YORK — Kansas City Royals star Salvador Perez was back in action Sunday as the team’s designated hitter following his first scheduled rest day of the season, which created a minor stir on social media.
The veteran catcher emphasized that his relationship with manager Matt Quatraro remains solid despite some public confusion about Saturday’s day off.
“No frustration, Zero frustration for us,” Perez stated before Sunday’s series finale against the Yankees. “The people they don’t want to know what’s going on here. They can think and they can say whatever they want to say, you know, zero frustration. I don’t have time for that.”
Saturday marked Perez’s first game off since he sat out two contests last August. When Quatraro explained the decision, he characterized it as providing his veteran player with a mental break.
That evening, Perez responded on social media with a pointed message: “I don’t need a mental breather.”
“I know people were surprised I didn’t play yesterday, but I think everybody has off days in the big leagues,” Perez explained. “It’s kind of hard to play 162, especially behind the home plate.”
Quatraro addressed the situation, clarifying that his earlier comments were misunderstood.
“Everything’s fine,” Quatraro said. “Salvy and I have talked multiple times about it. We’re in a good spot. I think some of it comes from it’s a story when Salvy doesn’t play and there’s usually a follow-up question to how’d that go, how’s he feeling. So it was just me trying to provide a little color to the answer that didn’t go the way it was intended and that’s really all there was to it.”
Sunday’s game marked Perez’s seventh appearance as designated hitter this season.
The 35-year-old veteran is struggling early in the campaign, batting just .160 with three home runs and six RBIs through his first 20 games. Last year, Perez hit .236 — his second-lowest full-season average — while still managing 30 homers and 100 RBIs for his third career century mark in runs batted in.
In 2024, Perez caught 92 games while serving as designated hitter in 38 others and playing 28 games at first base. He appeared in 47 games at first base last season.
To provide Perez with additional DH opportunities, Kansas City promoted catcher Elías Díaz from Triple-A Omaha, giving them three catchers on the roster. Díaz joined the organization on a minor league deal in late February and was hitting .226 at Omaha.
Díaz batted .204 with nine homers and 29 RBIs in 106 games for San Diego last season. Over his 11-year career with Colorado, Pittsburgh and San Diego, he owns a .247 batting average with 71 home runs and 326 RBIs.
