How Royals nine-time All-Star was nearly traded to AL West team

Nine-time All-Star catcher Salvador Perez has spent his 14-year career with the Kansas City Royals, but his tenure with the team almost ended last summer.

According to a report by Ken Rosenthal and Rustin Dodd of The Athletic, the 34-year-old backstop was "ready to go," prepared to "waive his veto power" as a player with 10 years in the big leagues and five straight years with the same club and join the Texas Rangers.

When Rangers 2023 All-Star catcher Jonah Heim went on the injured list four days ahead of last year's trade deadline, Royals general manager J.J. Piccolo asked Perez for permission to go ahead with trade talks and the four-time Silver Slugger approved.

"Sometimes you get frustrated," Perez said, per The Athletic report. "I was trying to make it to the playoffs again. I’m getting older. I tried to be honest with myself."

Perez played 39 games in his rookie 2011 campaign and 76 in 2012 before making his first of six consecutive All-Star teams in 2013 and winning his first of four straight Gold Glove Awards. The Royals went 71-91 and 72-90 in 2011 and 2012 but improved to 86-76 in 2013.

Joined by Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain, Perez helped lead Kansas City to Game 7 of the 2014 World Series before the team fell to the San Francisco Giants. The Royals clinched their first title in 30 years in 2015, and Perez was named the series MVP.

Since then, the group hasn't finished over .500, hasn't been back to the playoffs and has had three 100-plus loss campaigns. They tied for a franchise-worst 106 losses in 2023 but had a strong first half in 2024 at 52-45, two games out of the third AL wild-card spot.

Perez has had another monster season, making his ninth Midsummer Classic this week, which is second in franchise history behind Hall of Famer George Brett (13). Perez also leads Kansas City in home runs (17) while ranking second in hits (97), batting average (.282), on-base percentage (.343), slugging percentage (.477), OPS (.820) and total bases (164).

"I'm super happy," Perez continued. "Everything in the big leagues is about making it to the playoffs. I have to say, after we won the World Series, it was kind of tough the last seven years. But this year, we’ve got a lot of opportunity with the new guys, the pitchers, the players."

"I think we’re going to make it this year," he added.