the Royals put Salvador Perez on the 10-day injured list between today’s doubleheader games with the White Sox. Pérez suffered a sprained left thumb in the opener, and Kansas City quickly moved to replace him with Sebastien Rivero on the active list. Kansas City’s franchise backstop is getting off to a slow start, as is the rest of the lineup. Perez is hitting .206/.239/.397 in 34 games. He homered six times, but only walked four with 38 strikeouts, contributing to one of the lowest ratings in the big leagues.
While Pérez is out of action, the Royals will get their first extended look at the rookie MJ Melendez behind the plate. The 23-year-old guard led all minor league players with 41 homers last season, combining for a .286/.386/.625 line between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha. This is obviously an elite production for any player, let alone a receiver, and Melendez is now considered one of the hottest prospects in the sport. He was called up for his first MLB promotion earlier this month and will take the majority of the catching time while Pérez is on the shelf.
The latest on a few other injury situations in the league:
- the brave reliever placed Tyler Matzek on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 14, due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. It’s a worrying diagnosis, but an MRI this afternoon revealed no structural damage (transmitted by MLB.com’s Mark Bowman). Matzek will still be banned from pitching for a few weeks, however, indicating he will likely need a minor league rehab assignment even if he is deemed fit to return to action when he is next re-evaluated. Matzek posted a 2.57 ERA in 63 innings for the World Series champions last season. He struggled with significant control issues early this year, walking nine bases among his 47 batters faced.
- Dishes recipient James McCann underwent successful left hook surgery this morning, manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo). The team announced last Friday that he would require surgery after being diagnosed with a fracture, predicting a recovery time of around six weeks. McCann, who signed a four-year contract in the 2020-21 offseason, hit 0.232/0.294/0.349 in his first season at Queens. He’s started slowly this season, reaching 0.196/0.266/0.286 in 21 games. New York relies on a Tomás Nido – Patrick Mazeika pairing in McCann’s absence.