Salvador Perez-Royals beef brings up old Cardinals-Yadier Molina dispute

Kansas City Royals All-Star catcher and potential Hall of Famer Salvador Perez has been a staple for the organization since he debuted in 2011. Perez has stuck with the Royals through thick and thin, seeing ample success from 2013-2016 along with some solid seasons these past few years. The long-time backstop has played in 1,727 games, all with the Royals.

Perez is beloved in the city, and he has returned that favor to the Kansas City faithful; he's given his entire career to the organization that signed him nearly two decades ago.

Perez, however, is now 35 years old, and he'll turn 36 on May 10th. For a player who has logged more than 11,700 innings behind the plate in the regular season alone, the mileage has certainly added up on those old knees. Therefore, resting Perez on occasion has become an expected if not necessary move by Royals' manager Matt Quatraro.

Perez sat out Saturday's day game against the New York Yankees. According to Quatraro, Perez needed a "mental breather." Salvy took to Twitter/X to say that he didn't need that break.

This rest dispute brought back memories of another catching legend who played for a Missouri baseball team: Yadier Molina.

Salvador Perez not wanting to rest despite being a long-time catcher provides shades of St. Louis Cardinals' Yadier Molina saying similar things.

As Yadier Molina progressed through his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, calls for him to catch less each year began to grow. These calls perhaps reached a crescendo prior to the 2018 season. He had already logged over 15,000 innings at catcher up to that point in his career, and he was playing fewer and fewer games each year due to several minor maladies.

During spring training 2018, Molina spoke about people's desires to take him out of the lineup more often.

"I don't understand why people want me to be out of the lineup," a 35-year-old Molina said in response.

The language that was used with Quatraro and Perez this year is eerily similar to the words used between Molina and former Cardinals' manager Mike Matheny.

"Just looking at the way things have gone, he's plyaed in every game," Quatraro said. "Day game after night game, Carter (Jensen) was going to catch today. And Salvy's been struggilng a little bit. Just try to give him a little mental breather."

So far, Salvador Perez is struggling at the plate; he has a .160/.210/.307 slash line with a 48 OPS+. He's played 20 games this year with 14 of them coming from behind the plate and six at designated hitter. Perez could benefit from some time at both first base and designated hitter.

In both of these instances, the organization had a prime catching prospect ready to go. For the Cardinals, Carson Kelly (then their #3 overall prospect) was in need of major-league reps. For the Royals, top prospect Carter Jensen has been itching to get more looks behind the dish. Additionally, both Molina and Perez were/are the sole remining members of their respective organization's last World Series victory.

Perez has since cleared the air regarding this dispute, saying he had qualms with Quatraro's use of the phrase "mental breather" rather than simply saying he wanted to give Salvy some additional rest.

Few players in MLB history were known as greater workhorses than Salvador Perez and Yadier Molina. Both backstops take great pride in being behind the plate, and when they're removed from that spot, there's going to be hurt feelings. It's admirable that both of these legendary catchers have wanted to play catcher as often as possible.

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