Salvador Perez promoted to KC
Perez is expected to join the Royals for Wednesday night's game against the Tampa Bay Rays and is expected to remain with the club for the rest of the season.
He'll replace catcher Brayan Pena, who is going to Miami for the birth of his child and is on paternity leave. That left the Royals with only Manny Pina, another former Natural, to catch because veteran backstop Matt Treanor is on the disabled list with a concussion.
Perez, called up from Triple-A Omaha, has adapted well since his promotion to the Pacific Coast League. In 12 games, he's batted .333 (16-for-48) with five doubles, a home run and 10 RBIs. With the Naturals, Perez hit .283 with eight homers, 43 RBIs in 79 games.
Perez also represented the Naturals in San Antonio at this year's Texas League All-Star Game, having wowed the circuit's voting personnel mostly with his defense and game calling ability. At the time of his promotion, Perez was the best catcher in the league at throwing out runners, gunning down 47.8% of runners attempting to steal against him (43 CS in 90 attempts). Signed by Kansas City as a non-drafted free agent in September of 2006, the Valencia, Ven. resident was ranked prior to the season as the Royals' 17th best prospect by Baseball America.
The Royals cleared room on the 40-man roster for Perez by placing right-hander Kyle Davies on unconditional release waivers Wednesday. Davies made two rehab starts with the Naturals in the season's first half.
Perez' arrival in Kansas City marks the 11th player on the current Royals 25-Man big league roster to have played for the Naturals since their inaugural season in 2008.
The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals and play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark, located in Springdale. Visit our website, nwanaturals.com, for information on season tickets and ticket plans.