All-Star catcher Salvador Perez and the Kansas City Royals agreed on a restructured contract that will keep him with the reigning champions through 2021 and give the World Series MVP another $36 million in guaranteed money, a source close to the team told Yahoo Sports.
The deal for the 25-year-old, which is expected to be announced Tuesday, begins in 2017 and lasts five years. It represents a compromise between Perez, who signed one of the team-friendliest contracts ever in 2012 after his rookie season, and the Royals, who rewarded their most popular player with money more commensurate to his performance.
Perez’s original five-year, $7 million contract included three club options that after his three All-Star appearances and Gold Gloves jumped to a combined $16.5 million. The new contract, which begins after Perez makes $2 million this season, pays him a $6 million signing bonus, increases the value of the three option years to $20.5 million and guarantees him $13 million per year in 2020 and 2021.
In all, Kansas City tacked on $36 million in new money and locked up Perez for two additional years, through his age-31 season. The surprising spending of the Royals, once among the cheapest teams in baseball, has pushed their payroll to more than $130 million as they try to capitalize on a core that could be gone after the 2017 season.
Even with Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Wade Davis, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar due to hit free agency that winter, Perez will be around. He hit .260/.280/.426 with a career-high 21 home runs last season, and his .364 average against the New York Mets earned him series MVP honors.
Perez started 137 games at catcher last season, the most in the major leagues, and his reputation helped him to a third consecutive Gold Glove. How long his body allows him to stay behind the plate could determine the value of the extension for the Royals, though considering $13 million could be a relative bargain by 2020, Kansas City not only sought to satisfy Perez but to make a bet on cost certainty.
In the end, owner David Glass gave the contract his stamp of approval and what once was one of the best deals in sports turned into just another contract that, like the $72 million given this offseason to Alex Gordon, will keep Perez in Kansas City as the Royals try to capitalize on this era and transition to a new one.
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