Salvy stands alone: Perez is Royals' new HR king
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DETROIT -- Salvador Perez now stands alone among royalty.
Three days after tying George Brett’s franchise record for most home runs in Royals history with his 317th home run, Perez hit his 318th career homer on Saturday afternoon against the Tigers at Comerica Park and took sole possession of Kansas City’s home run record.
With the Royals down one run in the top of the seventh inning, Perez hit a slider from Tigers reliever Kyle Finnegan a Statcast-projected 401 feet out to left field for the record-breaking milestone home run -- and it was the game-tying blast in the Royals’ eventual 3-2 win.
Perez jogged the bases slowly on Saturday with his entire team waiting for him to celebrate in the dugout. He received a line of handshakes, hugs and high-fives before sitting down and looking directly into the camera that was following him with that signature Salvy smile, winking and looking up to the sky in gratitude.
Perez is the third active player to own his current team’s all-time home run record, joining Mike Trout (422 with the Angels) and Manny Machado (216 with the Padres).
Perez’s 318 home runs are the seventh most by a catcher in Major League history (min. 50% of games at the position), trailing Mike Piazza (427), Johnny Bench (389), Carlton Fisk (376), Yogi Berra (358), Lance Parrish (324) and Gary Carter (324). All but Parrish are in the Hall of Fame.
Comerica Park was the same place Perez hit his first home run, all the way back on Aug. 29, 2011, against Max Scherzer. It took Perez parts of six seasons to hit career home run No. 100, which came on June 10, 2017. And then the power just kept coming. On Sept, 29, 2021, he hit his 200th career homer, which happened to be his 48th of the season -- matching the Royals' single-season home run record.
That’s when the idea of chasing Brett’s record really started to materialize.
Perez hit his 300th career homer -- and 1,000th career RBI -- on Sept. 13, 2025. He finished that season with 30 homers and 303 for his career, just 14 away from tying Brett and 15 from breaking the record.
The chase was on in 2026, even if it took him a little longer than one might have expected due to a slow start and a down offensive year.
But this is Salvador Perez, and if you’ve learned anything about the Venezuelan backstop in his 15-year Major League career and two decades in this organization, it’s this: Never count him out.