Noah Cameron’s recent turnaround has given the Royals one of the few bright spots in a rough 2026 season, and Salvador Perez has been part of that surge in a way that’s easy to miss if you only look at the surface.
Kansas City entered August 8 sitting 21 games under .500, with its postseason hopes long gone. So the focus has shifted to smaller wins, and Cameron’s latest run has become one of them.
Three starts ago, he was still slogging through a second season that had pushed his ERA above five. Then came July 24 in Detroit, when he was sent out to pitch behind an opener.
Since then, the right-hander has looked like a different arm entirely.
Over his last three outings, Cameron has worked seven innings in that bullpen game and then eight innings in each of his next two starts. He has allowed three hits or fewer in every one of those appearances, given up just one run total, and struck out 24.
A big part of that rebound has been Cameron calling his own games, but Perez deserves a share of the credit too. He may not be the one setting the plan, but his presence behind the plate has clearly mattered. Chance Liebau pointed out this week on X that Cameron’s numbers with Perez catching have been far better than with any other Royals catcher.
The split is hard to ignore. In eight starts with Perez behind the dish, Cameron has posted a 1.94 ERA with 56 strikeouts.
By catcher, Cameron’s 2026 line tells the story:
Carter Jensen (9 GS): 5.94 ERA, 47 IP, 37 K, 11 BB
Elias Diaz (3 GS): 5.74 ERA, 15.2 IP, 15 K, 8 BB
Luke Maile (2 GS): 7.20 ERA, 10 IP, 8 K, 7 BB
SALVADOR PEREZ (8 GS): 1.94 ERA, 51 IP, 56 K, 14 IP
Perez’s own season has been a struggle. He’s hitting just .216/.263/.374 with a 71 wRC+ and -1.1 fWAR, and rookie Carter Jensen has clearly moved ahead of him in the catching picture. But after 14 years as the Royals’ primary catcher before 2026, Perez still brings the kind of veteran feel that can’t be measured neatly in a box score.
His blocking, framing and pop time are all well below his standard now, and Kansas City had already seemed headed toward a first base and DH-heavy role for him. Even so, there may still be room for him to catch more than just in emergencies. Veteran personal catchers have been part of baseball for years, and Perez’s connection with Cameron looks a lot like that kind of arrangement.
He’s not the World Series MVP-caliber All-Star he once was. But for a Royals team searching for anything to build on, Perez is still giving fans occasional flashes of the player they know so well - even if it’s only once every five games.
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