NEW YORK – For the first time this season, Salvador Perez wasn’t in the lineup on Saturday afternoon against the Yankees, with the Royals instead giving their veteran catcher a “mental breather,” according to manager Matt Quatraro.
Perez is usually the designated hitter for day games after night games, like Saturday, with Carter Jensen catching, but Quatraro made the decision to sit Perez instead and have him available off the bench.
“Just looking at the way things have gone, he’s played in every game,” Quatraro said. “Day game after night game, Carter was going to catch today. And Salvy’s been struggling a little bit. Just try to give him a little mental breather.”
Perez hasn’t gotten off to a good start this season, with a .160/.210/.307 slash line, three home runs and just six RBIs in 20 games. More glaring has been his lack of production with runners in scoring position: He has just one hit in 28 plate appearances. That one hit was a three-run home run on Thursday in Detroit, a game in which the Royals eventually lost, 10-9.
One day off doesn’t mean the Royals have lost their faith in their captain by any means – this isn’t the first cold streak Perez has gone through in his career, and he’s shown before that he can work out of it. But it is notable as the club continues to work through its season-opening offensive frustrations. He’ll be available off the bench and likely the first hitter the Royals turn to in a pinch-hit situation if the game calls for it.
“We know he’s not going to play 162 games, so we have to be strategic about the times where we do give him a day,” Quatraro said. “Some of it’s physical. He’s caught a lot early in the season. Some of it’s just the mental part, too. He’s a human, and when you struggle and you beat yourself up, you have high expectations like he does, sometimes it’s good to just relieve a little of the pressure.”
Instead of Perez batting fourth like he has all season, the Royals instead had Jac Caglianone hitting cleanup Saturday, followed by Jensen catching and batting fifth. Isaac Collins was the DH on Saturday, in the lineup for the first time since suffering a right knee contusion on Tuesday. Quatraro said Collins could have played the outfield, but he wanted the outfield alignment to have Caglianone in right field, Kyle Isbel in center and Lane Thomas in left field.