Salvador Perez caught an MLB-high 143 games during the regular season and was behind the plate for all 15 of the Royals’ postseason games, finishing the year with the most starts by a catcher in the history of baseball.
Not surprisingly he struggled down the stretch and into the playoffs, hitting just .190 in his final 22 regular season games and .207 in the postseason.
And now Perez is starting even more games at catcher for the MLB team in the All-Star Series in Japan.
Jon Morosi of FOXSports.com is treating this as a good thing, writing stuff like “Perez earned his paycheck” and “loves the game.” And that’s all true, but he’s also a 24-year-old catcher who has now caught more than 160 games and spent more than 1,400 innings behind the plate in one year. Catchers tend not to age particularly well anyway, but if Perez looks worn down in 2015 (and perhaps beyond) it won’t exactly be a mystery why.