Royals fans certainly know about Salvador Perez’s bat this season.

Even though he will turn 34 in a few weeks (May 10th, to be specific), Salvy is having one of the best seasons of his career at the plate thus far. In 21 games and 86 plate appearances, he is hitting .333 with a .428 wOBA and 180 wRC+, including six home runs and 22 RBI. His 1.2 fWAR is already higher than the two seasons combined (0.5 fWAR).

3-run Salvy Smash 💥 pic.twitter.com/32W8woyMwK

— Royals Daily (@RoyalsDaily_) April 21, 2024

Granted, it is likely that Salvy will cool off at some point.

After all, it’s challenging to carry a 180 wRC+ over an entire 162-game season, especially considering he has a career wRC+ of 103 (which is still good). It does seem, though, like his high-level offense may be sustainable, especially with him posting an 8.1% BB% and BB/K ratio of 0.54, which would be both career-highs if the season ended today.

However, even though his bat has been extremely impressive early on this season, I will not discuss it in this post.

Instead, I want to look at Salvy’s defense behind the plate, which looks better than ever in nearly every category. His Baseball Savant percentiles seem to confirm that as well.

It’s a bit early in the season to come to definite conclusions, much like his hitting. That said, Salvy is showing a rejuvenated and more polished version of himself defensively behind the plate that Royals fans hadn’t seen since his pre-pandemic days when he was regularly winning Gold Gloves.

Is this solid defensive performance a sign of things to come for Salvy in 2024 and perhaps beyond?

Or are these skills behind the plate simply a flash in the pan that will regress back to norms (especially in framing) over time?

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Blocking and Throwing Already An Improvement From Last Year

Salvy has traditionally rated well in blocking and throwing, especially from a scouting perspective. In fact, his proficiency in both categories was a big reason why he has won five Gold Gloves in his career.

That said, Salvy took a step back in both categories in 2023.

After producing five blocks above average in 2022, he saw his number drop to -1 in that category a season ago. That was his worst mark in that category since producing a -3 blocks above average mark in 2021.

Throwing runners out showed a similar pattern over the past few seasons.

In 2021, Salvy rated five CS above average, according to Savant. That number regressed to two in 2022. Last year, he rated as two CS below average, the worst mark in his career and the only time he’s ever been in the negative in that category.

Now, let’s look at the improvement this year, especially compared to years past.

Here’s a look at his numbers in the blocks metrics, via Savant.

Even though he’s only had a fraction of the block opportunities this year (503) compared to previous seasons, his blocks above average is three runs above average, which is four blocks better than a year ago.

Below is a glance at his CS metrics.

Salvy has always been elite in this category, and it’s also why he’s consistently been rated as one of the best defensive catchers in baseball.

In fact, some of his CS% numbers are kind of insane. He posted a CS% over 40 percent every season from 2016 to 2021, except 2017.

After posting a -2 CS above average mark and 12% CS% last year, he has seen his CS above average mark climb back up to 1 and his CS% increase to 33%. It’s still low for his standards, but it’s a step in the right direction (a 21% increase is nothing to shrug at), especially considering the new rules (which favor baserunners).

Some thought Salvy’s declining defense would prevent him from playing more behind the plate, especially considering his injury issues last year and with Freddy Fermin as the Royals’ backup.

So far this year, though, Salvy is proving that he has more left in the tank, not just on a hitting end but also when it comes to blocking pitches and throwing runners out on the basepaths.

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Salvy’s Framing Taking Major Leap Forward

While Salvy’s blocking and arm have always been lauded tools of his, his framing has been a different story.

Traditionally, Salvy has been rated as one of the worst framers in the league. This is a big reason his fWAR has stagnated over his career, as his FRM (framing runs above average), according to Fangraphs, is -114.9.

Yep, that’s pretty brutal, no matter how you slice it.

Last year, according to Savant, Salvy was seven catcher framing runs below average with a 43.9% strike rate. Both rated in the bottom percentiles of the league.

However, he is one catcher framing run above average and his strike rate is 50.7%. Not only does that rank him near the top of the league in those categories, but it is also a considerable improvement from what he has done since 2021, which can be seen in the table below.

So, what has been the big difference for Salvy in his framing?

Traditionally, Salvy has been pretty good at framing pitches in zone 12, which is middle up. However, he has struggled to frame pitches on the edges and low in the zone. He typically has consistently rated below average when framing those pitches for strikes.

That has been a different story this year. He has seen marked improvement from zones 14 to 19, with double-digit improvements in zones 16, 17, and 19, and a 7.3% improvement in zone 14 and a 4.7% improvement in zone 18.

It seems like Salvy has been improving in those areas since bench coach Paul Hoover came aboard last year. Hoover was known for working with Rays catchers, who have typically been one of the better teams in baseball when it comes to catcher framing.

Even though he was below average in those areas in 2023, he improved in each zone from 2022 (except for zone 14).

Thus, these impressive framing metrics from Salvy could be a product of the Royals coaching staff’s work in improving an area of catching that has usually been rated poorly since it became a standard metric to measure catcher defense.

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What Kind of Regression Will We See From Salvy?

I think Salvy will continue to post solid numbers this year when it comes to blocking pitches and throwing runners out, as long as he stays healthy. However, framing could be a more significant challenge, especially since Salvy doesn’t have a robust history of being a good framing catcher.

For context, let’s compare Salvy to Fermin this year regarding catcher framing runs and strike rate.

Fermin was a much stronger framer last year, with a strike rate of 47.6%. That was slightly above average (54th percentile) and 3.7% better than Salvy’s previous year.

I don’t think Fermin suddenly has become a six percent worse farmer than Salvy, just like that. Eventually, that gap will decrease, and Salvy will likely fall behind Fermin.

That said, I think Salvy has put in a lot of work over the past two years to become a better framer, which is a big reason why he’s not just a better defensive catcher but also why the starting pitching staff has succeeded this year (i.e., generating more strikes and fewer walks).

Then again, has better starting pitching made Salvy a better framing catcher? Or is Salvy’s framing helping the starting pitchers be better?

It’s probably a combo of both, but I would lean toward the former if I had to choose.

That’s not a bad thing, though.

Salvy’s improvement as a framer, even just a little bit, will be a massive boost to this pitching staff and Royals team this year, especially given how strong he is with his bat and other defensive skills.