DETROIT — Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez is climbing the MLB All-Star charts.
Perez overtook Texas Rangers backstop Jonah Heim in the latest All-Star voting update. The Royals captain now ranks second behind Baltimore Orioles star Adley Rutschman.
Rutschman leads all American League catchers with 895,217 votes. He is hitting .280 with 10 home runs and 32 RBIs this season.
Perez has closed the gap. He has 645,650 votes and has a narrow edge over Heim (643,471) on the leaderboard.
In his career, Perez has been nominated four times by fans. He earned nominations from 2015-17 and in 2021.
“He’s been a perennial All-Star and he deserves that recognition,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “I have not looked at the voting. Adley Rutschman, as you mentioned, is a great player, super talented young player in the game. Salvy deserves to be right there by every estimation in my opinion.”
Fans have two days remaining to vote. Major League Baseball will reveal the top two vote getters at every position in each league on Thursday.
There are many ways to cast an All-Star vote. Fans can vote online or via mobile devices with the MLB App and the MLB Ballpark App.
Perez is a seven-time All-Star. He leads all AL catchers in home runs (14), extra-base hits (28) and slugging percentage (.488).
“You’ve got to have Salvy in the All-Star Game,” Royals closer Scott Barlow said. “Fan favorite for sure. He plays really hard every day as a catcher.”
The Royals play the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night. Perez will start at catcher and bat third against Tigers starter Michael Lorenzen.
