DataBaseball
2026
Salvador Perez headshot

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
4.9
3 season(s)
PA
461
AVG
.216
OBP
.262
SLG
.373
wRC+
69
100 = avg

Salvador Perez is a designated hitter for the Kansas City Royals. In 2026 he hit 16 home runs and knocked in 49 RBIs, notching 92 hits across 461 plate appearances in 110 games. His batting average was .216, 11.4% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .262 clip and slugged .373, for an OPS of .636, 11.6% lower than the league mark of .719 — 10th of 12 on his team, and 328th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 88.8 mph off the bat, hit 41.9% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 9.1% of them and made contact on 74.7% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 69 wRC+ puts his offence 31% below average. That comes to -0.5 dbWAR — -16.1 runs with the bat, -0.5 on the bases, -4.0 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+69
wOBA.276
ISO.157
BB%3.9%
WAR-.5

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to -5.2 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-16.1Baserunning-0.5Position-4.0Replacement+15.4
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

3.51.5-0.5242526

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 LHP121111304622.270.322.459.33418.2%
vs RHP34131662121271.196.240.342.25520.8%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 339 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 339 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
9.1%
31 barrels
Exit velocity
88.8
mph average
Max exit velo
111.2
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
41.9%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
36.6%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
15.9°
average
Barrel rate9.1%
Exit velocity88.8 mph
Hard hit rate41.9%
Contact rate74.7%

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.

.077.231.227.158.15413 AB.42928 AB.21414 AB.28628 AB.19226 AB.16237 AB.35020 AB.25040 AB.19541 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 situations461.216.262.373.276
Bases empty2502355712121154.243.288.443.317
Runner on first97911825317.198.247.319.248
Runners on21219235437739.182.231.286.226
RISP11510117232422.168.217.257.208

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

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
202611046192164901893.216.262.373.157.2353.9%20.2%.276-16.169-0.5
202515564114130100028125.236.284.446.209.2514.4%19.5%.311-2.11001.9
202415865216027104044129.271.330.456.185.3026.7%19.8%.336+13.01133.5

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.