DataBaseball
2026
Salvador Perez headshot

Players · P · DH · 2026

Salvador Perez

Age
36
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 2"
Weight
255 lb
Number
#13
Born
May 10, 1990 in Valencia, Venezuela
MLB debut
August 10, 2011
Salary, 2026
$2M
dbWAR
20.2
11 season(s)
PA
620
AVG
.229
OBP
.273
SLG
.382
wRC+
74
100 = avg

Salvador Perez is a designated hitter for the Kansas City Royals. So far in 2026 he has hit 21 home runs and knocked in 77 RBIs, notching 131 hits across 620 plate appearances in 150 games. His batting average is .229, 6.3% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .273 clip and slugged .382, for an OPS of .656, 8.8% lower than the league mark of .719 — 11th of 15 on his team, and 325th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 89.2 mph off the bat, hit 42.7% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 9.8% of them and made contact on 74.9% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 74 wRC+ puts his offence 26% below average. That comes to -0.9 dbWAR — -16.9 runs with the bat, -1.7 for the ballpark, -0.5 on the bases, -3.1 on double plays, -5.1 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+74
wOBA.285
ISO.154
BB%4.0%
WAR-.9

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to -8.2 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.

Batting-16.9Ballpark-1.7Baserunning-0.5Double plays-3.1Position-5.1Replacement+19.2
BattingBallparkBaserunningDouble playsPositionReplacement

WAR by season

4.71.9-0.91516171820212223242526

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026KC1506201312177125119.229.273.382.154.2504.0%19.2%.285-16.974-0.9
2025KC15564114130100028125.236.284.446.209.2514.4%19.5%.311-2.11001.9
2024KC15865216027104044129.271.330.456.185.3026.7%19.8%.336+13.01133.1
2023KC1405801372380019135.255.292.422.167.2943.3%23.3%.303-8.5841.0
2022KC1144731132376018109.254.292.465.211.2853.8%23.0%.325+5.21092.2
2021KC16166516948121128170.273.316.544.271.2984.2%25.6%.359+23.61244.7
2020KC371565011321336.333.353.633.300.3751.9%23.1%.410+11.81592.0
2018KC1295441202780117108.235.274.439.204.2453.1%19.9%.306-5.2900.9
2017KC128499126278011795.268.297.495.227.2803.4%19.0%.332+3.01072.0
2016KC1395461272264022119.247.288.438.191.2804.0%21.8%.311-4.4891.7
2015KC141553138217011382.260.280.426.166.2702.4%14.8%.303-6.2891.5

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP174159424832.264.312.415.31218.4%
vs RHP44741589171787.214.258.369.27519.5%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 461 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 461 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
9.8%
45 barrels
Exit velocity
89.2
mph average
Max exit velo
111.3
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
42.7%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
36.9%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
15.5°
average
Barrel rate9.8%
Exit velocity89.2 mph
Hard hit rate42.7%
Contact rate74.9%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

.105.188.194.153.26319 AB.40040 AB.22722 AB.30839 AB.26338 AB.15452 AB.40025 AB.32050 AB.21252 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Salvador Perez hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations620——————.229.273.382.285
Bases empty3323127414141468.237.279.410.301
Runner on first1361272539523.197.250.323.249
Runners on289262577631151.218.266.347.266
RISP15313532454628.237.281.370.281

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Head to head

Put Salvador Perez beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Salvador Perez

Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.