Salvador Perez (b. 1990)
Filed under the name Salvador · July 6, 2026
Catching's the hardest, most thankless job on a baseball diamond if you ask me — you're squatting behind the plate all game calling pitches and taking foul tips off your own body while some outfielder gets the highlight reel — so Salvador Pérez being a multiple-time All-Star at that specific position tells me plenty about the man beyond the stats. That's a position built for somebody willing to do unglamorous, physically punishing work every single game, same as the guys who worked the hottest, dirtiest stations on my old mill floor and never got the credit the guys upstream did. Staying at that level for the Royals over that many years means he earned it through consistency, not one lucky season somebody remembers fondly and forgets the rest. I've got two stents and bad knees from thirty-four years of standing on a mill floor, so I've got a natural appreciation for anybody whose whole career is built on absorbing punishment other people don't see and just showing back up the next day.