Royals manager provides injury update on Salvador Perez

Thanks to left hip soreness, catcher/designated hitter Salvador Perez wasn't in the Kansas City Royals lineup on Friday night as a three-game series began against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. However, Royals manager Matt Quatraro said he didn't expect the nine-time All-Star to be missing from the lineup for long.

"It's the same hip soreness that he's had, so we feel real fortunate that there wasn't something new," Quatraro said. "It's day to day. Hopefully we can stay away from him for a couple of days catching-wise. That's why we activated (Luke) Maile."

Luke Maile, brought up from Triple-A Omaha earlier in the day, gives the Royals three catchers on their active roster. With Perez out on Friday, Freddy Fermin took over behind the plate while Mark Canha assumed designated hitter duties.

Quatraro said it wasn't out of the question that the Royals might use Perez as a pinch hitter. However, that would likely be a long shot.

"We're going to do everything we can not to use him," Quatraro said of Perez, who left Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays in the sixth inning with the hip issue.

"I think he was aware how sore he was leaving the game yesterday, and very happy that things weren't worse when he got the MRI," he continued. "It's day to day and really not that big of a deal."

Outside of a seven-day injured list stint in 2023 because of a concussion, the 34-year-old Perez hasn't been on the injured list since the middle of the 2022 campaign.

Even with the durability displayed by Perez, Maile, a nine-year MLB veteran, will get his first exposure with the Royals outside of spring training. He said on Friday that he was digging back into his memory bank to prepare to work with Royals pitchers again in Baltimore and potentially beyond.

"I'm going to be relying pretty heavily on those experiences," Maile said of spring training. "You really have to stay on your game there. It's not something you take lightly because it will come back to bite you if you do."

All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.