Salvy started his rookie year in AA, after 79 games there they moved him to AAA for 12 games before promoting him to the bigs on Aug. 10.

You're probably thinking of Moose, who started his rookie year in Omaha and played 55 games before being called up.
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Salvy's ascent into being a slugger is fascinating. I'm convinced if he wanted to he could be Joe Mauer and hit for a super high avg.

Dayton said in his book Ned wanted him up in the MLB at age 18 or 19. Crazy to think he wasn't in the Top 100 prospects.

2010 in Wilmington he hit .290 and hit 7 HR (this has got to be a record batting avg for the guys that went through Wilmington, NOBODY hits there)

2011 hit .290 again and hit 10 HR.

2012 before being called up .340 with no homers.

20 career Milb homers before being called up. Now he's about to catch Ohtani as the HR leader. First few years Perez was in the majors he hit between .290 and .330 as well if I recall before he was like - ah fuck it, I wanna hit dingers.
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In addition, Salvy didn't have a 'Salvy' blocking him in KC when he was coming up.

MJ does.
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Melendez isn't blocked.

Perez has DH'd in 29 games this year (C - 99). If the Royals had an equal defensive option (Melendez is - better than Gallagher), they likely would DH Perez more regularly.

If Melendez hits enough to get at-bats at DH (and his offensive numbers are right in line with Witt and Pratto) it's a best-of-both worlds situation.
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I get what you're saying, but don't you think they'll let Salvy have some input in that situation? (I.E. He still wants to catch a lot, earn gold gloves, chase HOF credentials, etc.) And as long as he's still playing defense at an elite level (minus pitch framing) he should be given every opportunity to 'regularly' catch. He has said before he wants to be considered the best catcher ever, so I think him catching is important to him and he will want to continue to do that a majority of the time, as long as he is still performing.

All that to say, I think the Royals prefer MJ either playing catcher for a while (which would mean he stays down at Omaha through next year, likely), unless they are considering a position switch for him (which would kind of waste his value) or maybe he would be part of a trade package for a CF or a Top of the Rotation arm if one became available in the off-season?

I don't know. Will be interesting to see what they do. But, admittedly, it's a good problem to have that didn't exist this time last year . . . . . .
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If they trade MJ Melendez for some solid CF because we have a catcher on the wrong side of 30 who is explicitly showing he's a much better hitter when he's rested...it would be one of the most shortsighted things ever.
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Why is Junis on the team again? Don't they already have a 6-man rotation?
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This, so much this.

I don't think Perez wants to be a part-time catcher, but his legacy is improved if he has big offensive seasons. Telling him he can play every day because he's getting to DH every 3rd day is something I'd think would hold some appeal for Perez.

That would still have him catching around 110 games. It still carves out 50+ games behind the dish for Melendez, and - again - if Melendez hits as well as they think he can, his bat should be in the lineup every day, too (at DH or 3B or LF).
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Wasn't necessarily suggesting that's what they should do, just speculating on what they might do and how they intend to balance that with having Salvy catching?
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Sam Mellinger wrote in his article today that MJ Melendez may be athletic enough to be play corner outfield. That would be something if he is great hitter and above average defense as catcher and still be able to play some OF , while Salvy remains primary catcher.
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Was reading an article on Fangraphs about Salvy's newfound power. He then talked about HOF chances and said he's skeptical and a big part of that is because of new framing data and when that data is added into WAR calculation, then Salvy's WAR tanks due to him having the "5th lowest framing mark in the pitch tracking era". He thinks the best chance Salvy has to get into the hall is to become a full-time DH and play well into his 30s.

Here's the article:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/salvador...-never-before/
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Reddit is convinced Salvy is the most overrated player of the millennium because of how rough his fWar is. And it's bad. I think it's around 14 for his career :-). His rWar is around 28, about 14 behind Yadi's (this feels much closer to the mark), but rWar does not factor in framing. Salvy has one of the most dramatic gaps in rWar vs fWar, and Reddit tends to really rely on whatever WAR suits their argument, and because the narrative is that Salvy is overrated, any thread about Salvy just gets firebombed with his fWar stats "proving" he's overrated.

There's a pretty big debate among fans. Some who argue that rWar is not a valid way to evaluate catchers because it ignores framing vs. fans who think that fWar values framing way too heavily in a position that's been notoriously difficult for sabermetrics to calculate. I think a big part of how Salvy will be evaluated will be determined by which side wins out and if any advancing tech moves in his favor.

All pitchers he's played with have praised his pitch calling/game management ability. ESPN has tried to measure that in the past and Salvy has always been near the top. IF (and this is a big IF) a dataset emerges that validates Sal's ability there, that will help him out a lot, as it's been argued that pitch calling/game managing would be much more important than framing if we can figure out how to measure that - but then, should credit go to the catcher or the coaches? Fwiw, pitchers have routinely praised Salvy over the coaching staff for his ability there.
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The amount of value Fangraphs assigns to catcher framing is presently ridiculous. And it’s driving a lot of the “Perez is overrated” stuff on Twitter/Reddit.
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But if all we're doing is having Melendez play 50+ games behind the dish and DH the rest of the time, I'd just rather have Pratto up playing 1B nearly every night and DH Santana.
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Fangraph article posted insert Prison Bitch

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