#3 – Salvador Perez
Ever since he broke into the league in 2011, Salvador Perez has been one of the best catchers in baseball and a rock behind the plate for the Kansas City Royals. So far this season, he is hitting .282 with nine home runs and 25 runs batted in.
Salvy also leads his team in batting average, home runs, runs batted in, slugging percentage, and on-base plus slugging (OPS). Although the Royals haven’t had a taste of playoff glory since their World Series championship in 2015, Perez has managed to win two Gold Gloves since he got his ring.
As mentioned above, the seven-time All-Star is no stranger to success. How about a World Series Most Valuable Player Award for starters? He also won the Lou Gehrig Award back in 2021 and has five Gold Gloves to his name. Before the season, he was officially named the captain of his team which is a huge accomplishment for anyone.
For Royals fans and baseball fans in general, seeing Perez win another World Series with Kansas City seems unlikely as the star catcher is getting there in age and the Royals are not likely contenders. But as an optimistic fan like myself, anything can happen and I would be very happy to see Salvador Perez lift the commissioner’s trophy again.