Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez finishes seventh in American League MVP voting

Kansas City Royals star catcher Salvador Perez finished seventh in the voting for the American League Most Valuable Player award, which was won unanimously by Los Angeles Angels pitcher/designated hitter Shohei Ohtani.

The AL and NL MVP awards, voted on by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, were announced Thursday during a live broadcast on MLB Network. Earlier this month, the finalists in each league were revealed.

Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper won the NL MVP for the second time in his career. He beat out Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto and San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr.

The AL finalists were Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays second baseman Marcus Semien and Ohtani. Guerrero was the AL Hank Aaron Award winner as the league’s top offensive performer.

Ohtani, the first two-way player of such prominence since Hall of Famer Babe Ruth nearly 100 years ago, slashed .257/.372/.592 with a 158 OPS+ along with 46 homers, 26 doubles, eight triples, 100 RBIs, 103 runs, 96 walks and 26 stolen bases in 155 games.

Ohtani won the AL Silver Slugger award as a designated hitter.

As a pitcher, Ohtani went 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 130 1/3 innings in 23 starts.

Perez, who won his fourth Silver Slugger award last week, led the majors in RBIs (121) and tied for the lead in home runs (48) along with Guerrero.

Perez became the sixth player in the last 30 years to lead the majors in both home runs and RBIs, having joined Giancarlo Stanton (2017), Chris Davis (2013), Miguel Cabrera (2012), Ryan Howard (2006, 2008), and Alex Rodríguez (2002, 2007).

Perez tied the Royals single-season home run record set by Jorge Soler in 2019. Perez’s 48 homers were the most in a season for a primary catcher (at least 75% of games played at catcher) in major-league history.

He surpassed the previous record of 45 set by Hall of Famer Johnny Bench in 1970. By leading the majors in both home runs and RBIs, Perez became just the second primary catcher to lead in both, the other having been Bench in 1970 and 1972.

Perez batted .273, and his .859 OPS was a career high for a full-length season, as was his .544 slugging percentage (10th-best in MLB). He registered an OPS+ of 126.

Of Perez’s 48 homers, 18 gave the Royals a lead. That total matched St. Louis’ Nolan Arenado for the most in the majors.

Perez also led the majors with 34 multi-RBI games, and he tied for third in the majors with 29 go-ahead RBIs.

Defensively behind the plate, Perez led all catchers with 12 double plays, threw out at MLB-best 44% (18 of 41) of runners attempting stolen bases, led all AL catchers with a .998 fielding percentage and four pickoffs.

He played a career-high 161 games, including an MLB-best 120 starts at catcher, and matched Hall of Famer Ted Simmons’ mark set in 1973 for the most games by a primary catcher in a single season.

This summer, Perez earned his seventh MLB All-Star Game selection and was voted the starter for the AL for the sixth time in his career.

Two writers from each MLB city vote for each award. Writers from NL cities vote for NL awards, and writers from AL cities vote for AL awards, totaling 30 voters for each award.

The Star’s Royals beat writer Lynn Worthy was one of the two voters from the Kansas City chapter of the BBWAA for the AL MVP this year.

The full voting breakdown is available on the BBWAA’s website. The selections on Worthy’s ballot were: 1st, Shohei Ohtani; 2nd, Salvador Perez; 3rd, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 4th, Marcus Semien; 5th, Carlos Correa; 6th, Matt Olson; 7th, Cedric Mullins; 8th, Aaron Judge; 9th, Brandon Lowe; 10th, Xander Bogaerts.