Houston Astros: 3 reasons to pry Salvador Perez away from the Royals
By T.A. Mock
Perez’s bat would play even better in the Houston Astros lineup
Realmuto has a great bat, let’s get that clear from the start. However, Perez’s bat would be better than Realmuto’s in the Houston Astros lineup. In fact, a move to the Astros would even be a major upgrade over what Perez has been able to accomplish in the Royals lineup.
In each of the last five seasons, Perez has launched at least 20 home runs, including 27 in each of the past two. That is terrific production in an offense that has lacked production ever since their 2015 World Series victory. In addition to those home runs, Perez has also driven in 80 RBIs in each of the past two seasons.
Aside from the same power and run production numbers in 2018 as he had in 2017, Perez was arguably worse from the plate. He hit a career-low .236 average and .274 OBP. He also posted his second worst slugging percentage, .439.
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Perez is due to a regression to the mean should be able to easily bounce back to an average north of .250 in 2019. However, the OBP was pretty par for the course for Perez as his career high for drawn walks in 22 in a season. The Astros have previously taught several batters to be more patient in the batter’s box.
Placing Perez’ powerful bat in the middle of the order would be a huge boon to the Astros offensive production. The Astros saw the benefits of an offensive catcher when McCann was healthy in 2017. Perez’s bat is even better than McCann’s was a couple years ago. There is no question in this realm.