Kansas City Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez will now forever be part of MLB’s history books. In Kansas City’s 7-2 win over the Cleveland Indians on Monday, Perez hit his 46th home run of the 2021 season, setting the MLB record for most home runs by a catcher in a single season.
The previous record was held by Cincinnati Reds legend Johnny Bench. He had 45 homers during the 1970 MLB season while playing most of the games at the catcher position.
“It was unbelievable,” Perez said of his achievement.“I was thanking God for this. It’s amazing. And I said before, I never had hit 30 in my career. So I was looking for 30 and 100 RBIs. So this is a dream come true.”
This 46th homer also allowed Perez to get involved in the battle for overall MLB home run leader in 2021. The 31-year-old slugger is now tied with the Toronto Blue Jays phenom Vladimir Guerrero Jr, who also owns a 46 home runs tally at the moment. LA Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani is third on the list with 44.
The 2021 MLB season is shaping up to be historic for Salvador Perez in other ways as well. He currently leads the league in RBIs with 115 and is the first catcher since 1999 and Hall of Famer Mike Piazza to have that many. Perez also moved to the No. 2 spot on the Royals’ home run leaders list while having a shot at the franchise’s single-season record in home runs. He needs three more to beat Jorge Soler’s tally of 48 from 2019.
