From a pure financial standpoint, the Kansas City Royals are reaping exponential rewards from All-Star catcher and defensive mastermind Salvador Perez.
The Royals handed a five-year, $7 million contract to Perez after a brilliant rookie year in 2011 (.331/.361/.471, 1.5 WAR in 38 games). Most baseball stat geeks project that each Win Above Replacement is worth 7-9 million dollars, which makes Salvy's 8.9 WAR since 2011 worth in somewhere in the range of $63-80 million.
That's a deep discount of 89% or more -- a glaring gap which has led to some good-faith negotiations between Perez and the team about a potential extension and raise. However, Royals Blue's Zach Hodson doesn't believe a deal will get done soon, or perhaps ever:
"The economics of baseball just don’t work like that. There is an ever quickly approaching close to the window for this particular Royals team. The core will soon be hitting free agency. Even with the recent success and a new television deal looming on the horizon, the Royals will never be able to consistently play the free agency game.
"(GM) Dayton Moore has to remain cognizant that as much as he would like to reward Salvador Perez for what he has done (not to mention all the good PR that would result from that), he must try to project what kind of player he will be in 2020 and beyond."
Hodson points to a recent offensive decline (OBP, Hard Contact, ETC) and the wear and tear Perez's body takes catching 140+ games a year (especially at 6'4", 240 pounds) as reasoning for why the Royals may wait things out until his second arbitration year in 2018, or maybe even stay away from a significant raise/extension in general.
However, this is all mere speculation. Perez is considered the heartbeat of the clubhouse by many around the organization, and both his marketability and leadership are prized by fans, executives, coaches and players alike.
Kansas City dipped into the well and gave $18 million per year for four years to Alex Gordon, and he's already north of 30. Unless Dayton Moore is really looking to play it safe with the free-agent exodus slated for 2017, it might behoove him to ignore the numbers and find a middle ground that rewards the 25-year-old Perez for his overall value and contributions.
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