Salvador Perez Injury Update Takes Brutal Turn for Royals

Just when fans thought the 2022 MLB season couldn't get any worse for the Kansas City Royals, it did. Fan-favorite catcher Salvador Perez exited Tuesday's game after re-aggravating a nagging thumb injury and though management hoped it wasn't serious, that's no longer the case.

The Royals announced on Friday that they have sent Perez back to the 10-day injured list as he requires surgery to fix the ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb. An official timetable hasn't been revealed, but the club is expecting him to be back before the season ends.

Salvador Perez Injury Update

Perez's IL placement is retroactive to June 21, making Friday, July 1 his earliest return date. It's tough to imagine that quick of a recovery, though, especially with surgery being involved. It doesn't help that some Royals fans are upset that the team immediately threw Perez back at catcher rather than building him up at the designated hitter position.

The truth is that the Royals cannot put Perez back into the lineup until he's 100%. After the five-time Gold Glove winner led the Majors in home runs (48) and RBIs (121) last year, he sits at 11 and 34, respectively, through 57 games in 2022, proving that his injury has limited him.

On top of that, Perez's .211 batting average in at-bats is, by far, the worst of his career, as is the fact that he's struck out in 27.5% of his plate appearances — 6.4% higher than the league average.

A seven-time All-Star and former World Series MVP, Perez deserves as much time off as he needs before he makes his return. If he doesn't end up being healthy enough by the end of the year, Kansas City needs to accept that and work toward a 2023 comeback instead.

After all, there isn't much left to be played for this year.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.