Salvador Pérez Wants To Stay A Royal

[Andres Chavez]

Image courtesy of IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The 2026 trade deadline is around the corner, and the Kansas City Royals are expected to be one of a few sellers offloading pieces. That should put them in an advantageous position, as the majority of squads in the league have enough incentives to be buyers.

One Royals player who won’t be playing for another team, however, is catcher/designated hitter Salvador Perez. The veteran, according to The New York Post and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, “doesn’t want to leave the Royals and has veto power over trades.”

Sounds like Pérez, who was signed as an amateur free agent in 2006 and has been a major leaguer since 2011, will retire as a Royal, which would make him one of the rare one-club players in modern baseball.

Heyman did say that “about a half-dozen teams seek a catcher but they can probably look elsewhere” when discussing Pérez on X.

The 36-year-old former World Series champion is having a down season, hitting a disappointing .208/.259/.365 with 15 home runs and a 67 wRC+. He has played 45 games at the designated hitter spot, 39 at catcher, and 16 at first base, grading out as a mediocre defender everywhere.

Pérez has been an offensive and defensive liability this year, but is coming off a 2025 season in which he hit 30 homers and drove in 100 runs. He appears to have hit rock bottom in the 2026 campaign, though, sporting the second-worst fWAR in baseball at -1.2 as of Tuesday.

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