Does Salvador Perez have one more great stretch in him?

Baseball gamers all age out of the sport, however they take totally different paths. Some gamers attain their athletic peak of their mid-20s after which battle to take care of their sport even into their late 20s or early 30s. (Eric Hosmer involves thoughts). Different gamers have a gradual decline after peaking of their late 20s and are in a position to contribute into their 30s (a Mike Sweeney or Lorenzo Cain). Then there are the fellows who simply fall off a cliff on the drop of a hat, taking part in as a shell of themselves afterwards (Alex Gordon).

Salvador Perez, the Kansas Metropolis Royals captain and sole member of the 2015 World Sequence champion squad nonetheless holding a job as a participant in Main League Baseball, simply turned 35 years previous this Might. Everyone knows that he’ll age and retire identical to each single one of many 20,035 MLB gamers to return earlier than him.

However how will it occur? That’s onerous to guess, particularly as a result of Salvy has fooled all of us up to now. In 2018, Salvy solely hit .235/.274/.439 after which missed the whole thing of 2019 as a result of Tommy John surgical procedure. It appeared like Salvy’s days could be numbered—however then he dominated the COVID-shortened 2020 season and smacked 48 residence runs in 2021. After faltering offensively in 2023, he got here again final yr to hit .271/.330/.456 and win his fifth Silver Slugger award.

This yr, nevertheless, Salvy’s taking part in has been principally disastrous. Salvy turned in a Golden Sombrero efficiency on Saturday evening, hanging out swinging 4 instances on very unhealthy pitches. From a manufacturing standpoint, nothing goes good. After Saturday’s efficiency, he was not hitting for any common (.228), he was not getting on base in anyway (3.9% stroll fee and a .264 OBP), and his remoted energy of .116 was beneath the profession ISO (.119) of famous energy hitter Garrett Hampson.

After which Salvy went out and had an incredible Sunday, taking a stroll and crushing a two-run residence run to tie the sport. He appeared like a completely totally different participant.

Will this residence run be the catalyst for a scorching streak? Let’s hope so. The excellent news is that Salvy has gone by means of streaks similar to the 61-game streak this yr that noticed him backside out at a .608 OPS after Saturday just about yearly. In every of the final 4 seasons, Perez has gone by means of big stretches the place his manufacturing was nonexistent. Every of those 4 main slumps went between 46 and 82 video games and featured an OPS beneath .655.

We are likely to memory-hole these stretches due to how properly Salvy produces within the non-slumps, however when Salvy is in a nasty stretch, whooooo boy it isn’t nice.

That is the case as a result of there’s principally nothing in Salvy’s sport to mitigate streaky or unfortunate hitting. Perez has swung at a higher share of pitches (58.7%) than any of the opposite 198 gamers with not less than 1,500 plate appearances over the past 5 years. He doesn’t stroll, and so if he’s not getting hits, he’s not getting on base anyhow. And amongst that very same set of gamers over that very same size of time, Salvy has been the second-least beneficial baserunner within the league, which means that he has to hit for energy to supply a lot offensive juice.

However as we noticed Sunday, Salvy nonetheless has energy. His max exit velocity is within the 91st percentile, and his anticipated stats recommend he has been extremely unfortunate on balls in play (for example, he ought to have three extra residence runs this yr than he has).

We all know that Salvador Perez, Captain, World Sequence Champion gained’t be capable to play endlessly. We additionally know that Salvy is streaky and has a latest historical past of slumbering for swaths of the season. Hopefully Sunday is a sign that Salvy’s bat is waking up, able to do injury to any pitcher that dares throw him a strike.