Since Yadier Molina came up with Cardinals a decade ago, he has been a significant part of the baseball community. Baseball has labeled him more than just a good player, a great defensive catcher, and a very good game caller. They have dubbed him the most indispensable player in the game. When it comes to Yadi, there is truth to what people say – “all the things he does don’t always show up” and “you just have to watch him every day to know his true value”. There is no disputing how good Yadi has been for the past ten years, but there is a new guy who should be considered that for Most Indispensable Player award —Salvador Perez.
The Royals unexpected playoff run last October reasserted a lot of common wisdom into the baseball community’s heads.
- Having a great defensive catcher, who can frame pitches and calls a good game, is important.
- It’s really nice if you have three or more bullpen pieces that can “shorten the game” and make it really hard to score after the sixth.
- Outfield defense is important.
The Royals have that great defensive catcher in Salvador Perez. Since the 2012 season, Perez has accumulated 9.9 fWAR, 10 wins; the seventh most in baseball only behind Carlos Santana, Joe Mauer, Russell Martin, Jonathan Lucroy, Yadier Molina, and Buster Posey. This has been done on the back of a .283/.312/.432 slash line, which adds up to a .323 wOBA the eleventh best in baseball in that time period.
Catcher is one of those defensively critical positions on the field. A team will more often than not sacrifice offense in order to get a “plus” defensive catcher. Another valuable asset for a catcher is durability which goes along with the defensive abilities.
A short interesting way of summing defensive value is through the use of defensive WAR, or dWAR. Since his first season in which he got significant playing time, Perez has posted dWAR of 1.4, 2.2, and 2.1. Last year’s mark of 2.1 made Perez the highest rated catcher by dWAR in all of baseball. Defensive WAR tries to summarize a bunch of other stats into a single number just like normal WAR.
Defensive WAR is an attempt to sum up the contributions made just on the defensive side of the ball. This includes defensive runs saved and stats like stolen base runs. Stolen base runs attempts to consolidate the contributions of a catcher throwing runners out on the bases, but on a linear weight based equation. According to rSB, Perez had the best arm in baseball even better than Molina’s which is borne out by his career 35% caught stealing percentage.
One of the most impressive facts about Perez is that he played in 146 games and caught 1248 innings in the 2014 regular season as well as in 15 postseason games for a total of 161. A catcher playing basically an entire season is generally unheard of.
Perez is a great example of a complete player. He hits well, is a great defensive catcher, and can throw base runners out an impressive clip. The Royals and baseball fans should have at least another decade to watch Sal do his thing. Time to move over, Yadi. It’s Sal’s turn to be the MIP and the darling of the baseball media.