Kansas City Royals: Salvador Perez sets sights on Johnny Bench
Salvador Perez has already slugged his way into the record books. By belting his 40th homer on the season, he became the first catcher in AL history to hit that many home runs in a year. He also became just the second player in Kansas City Royals history to reach the 40 homer plateau, joining Jorge Soler, who hit 48 in 2019.
He is not content to be sitting at the 40 homer plateau. On Sunday, Perez continued his assault, belting a three run blast into the fountains for his 41st homer of the season. That home run tied him with Roy Campanella (1953) and Todd Hundley (1996) for the third most homers of any catcher in Major League Baseball history.
Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez has the record books in sight
As there are still over four weeks left in the season, Perez would seemingly have a great chance of setting the new MLB record for homers by a catcher. Only Javy Lopez, who hit 43 homers in 2003, and the legendary Johnny Bench, who had 45 homers in 1970, are ahead of him in that list.
More Royals. Perez building Hall of Fame case. light
It is not unreasonable to think that Perez could annihilate both the all time home run record for catchers and the Royals’ single season record. Both Bench and Soler are well within his sights, and barring an unforeseen power outage to close out the season, both could be taken down.
Perez may not be done with those two players. He is now two homers behind the major league lead held by Shohei Ohtani. While Ohtani may have all but wrapped up the AL MVP vote at this point, Perez could surpass him for the home run title this season.
While Perez has never hit for this much power before, it is not entirely unexpected. He had reached the 20 home run mark for four consecutive seasons before missing the 2019 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. It was just a matter of time before he had his first 30+ home run season. Now, he is using 2021 to add to what may become a Hall of Fame career.
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Salvador Perez has continued his assault on the home run record books. The Kansas City Royals catcher has Johnny Bench within his sights.