By Adam Gardner | July 27, 2026
It’s been three weeks since the last post on The Looping Liner and despite some changes, the Kansas City Royals are still in the same spot.
The Royals record in my last post on July 6 was 36-54. Prior to tonight’s game at Minnesota, the Royals are 45-62. Double-check my math but I believe that means the Royals have gone 9-8 over the past three weeks (with the All Star Break in the middle of that time).
That’s solid, winning baseball. The Royals were 11.5 games back in the American League Central on July 6, but after this 9-8 stretch, KC sits just … 11.5 games back in the American League Central.
Kansas City is also 9 games behind pace for the final Wild Card spot. This is good news, really. There isn’t any reason for the Front Office to believe the team is still a contender and they should explore every trade opportunity to improve the club for the near and long-term future.
So while I was gone on vacation, the team stood still in the standings. But underneath that calm surface was a lot of moving and shaking. Let’s start with one of the greatest Royals to ever put on the uniform.
Salvy passes George
Salvador Perez, the heart and soul of the Kansas City Royals franchise for well over a decade, passed George Brett for the most home runs in franchise history. He did so with a homer against Detroit on Saturday, giving him No. 318.
Royals fans fell in love with Salvy as soon as he made is debut in 2011 – possibly before then if they were big followers of the team’s farm system. He threw out three baserunners in his first game.
We quickly were enchanted by the way Salvy played the game. It was like watching a kid play a pick-up game with his friends, but he brought the same energy every day and every season.
With the Royals chasing a postseason spot in 2024, Salvy made news by stopping at a neighborhood, backyard whiffle ball game and playing with the kids. That’s just who he is — he loves the game and loves playing.
His career has spanned several iterations of the Kansas City Royals. He took the field with Melky Cabrera, Jeff Francoeur and Johnny Giavotella in his first game and now he’s taking the field with Bobby Witt Jr., Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen.
Salvy in the Hall?
There’s plenty of discourse on whether or not Salvy is worthy of the Hall of Fame. On one hand I understand the question – there are only 20 catchers in the HoF which makes it a tough position to crack the hall.
Salvy’s WAR is just 35.2 – Jorge Posada isn’t in the Hall and retired with a WAR of 42.7. I really like WAR as a tool – it definitely gives you an idea – but thankfully it isn’t the end-all, be-all when evaluating players.
Take a closer look at the comparison with Posada and you’ll see Salvy has more hits and more home runs in fewer games played. Salvy has four more All-Star Game nods which shows how he compared to the catchers of his era.
Salvy has five Gold Glove awards while Posada had none. Salvy also won the World Series MVP – I’m not taking a swipe at Posada because I fully believe he was a great catcher, but he couldn’t pull that off in several attempts.
For a majority of Salvy’s career, analysts didn’t like the way he framed pitches. He was great at throwing out baserunners, yes, but it was thought that he cost his pitchers on ball/strike calls on the border because he didn’t receive them well. This is what hurts his WAR.
But we have the ABS system now for borderline pitches, and Salvy is pretty great knowing when to challenge on those pitches. Can you imagine if this had been around his entire career?
Invariably when it comes to Hall of Fame debates, people want to know if a player was “clutch” or not. Some folks don’t believe that clutch actually exists and I’m not interested in convincing them it does. But for those who do believe, Salvy has answers.
The 2014 Wild Card game against the Athletics was one of the wildest roller coasters I ever rode and I didn’t even leave my living room. Salvy finally sent us into euphoria when he ripped an outside pitch down the third-base line past a diving Josh Donaldson to bring home Christan Colon.
Salvy has a slash line of .348/.375/.478 in 12 World Series games. Those numbers surpass his career slash line significantly. When the moment was biggest, Salvy came up huge.
Now Salvy has the Royals all-time home run record to go along with the Royals single-season home run record of 48 (tied with Jorge Soler). This means he has the big moments and the big numbers. How about a historical comparison?
Salvador Perez is one of two catchers to ever have 300+ home runs, 5+ Gold Gloves, 9+ All Star teams and a World Series MVP. The other is Johnny Bench, who was elected to the HoF in his first year on the ballot with 96.4% of the vote.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and talks like a duck, guess what – it’s a duck. Everything about Salvador Perez screams “Hall of Fame!” and I’m certain voters will understand this when his time comes.
Who is this team?
A quick journey back to March allows us to look at the Royals 2026 Opening Day roster. Take a gander at this group.
Every team goes through ups and downs with their roster through a season. Injuries, slumps, trades; things change. I get it. I was actually surprised to count 17 of those names on the current active roster.
But the names not on the current active roster really hurt, particularly Kris Bubic, Carlos Estevez, Cole Ragans, Maikel Garcia and, worst of all, Bobby Witt Jr. They’re all out with injuries.
Witt is dealing with lower back tightness (I feel for you, bud). It’s his first trip to the Injured List and the hope is he’s back later this week or early next week. I hope the Royals err on the side of caution and there is no reason to push Witt back for a lost season.
The roster will likely turn over even more in the next week as the trade deadline approaches at 5 p.m. Central on Monday, Aug. 3.
There aren’t many untouchables on this roster: Witt and Caglianone are really the only players that should be an absolute “No way” if another GM calls about them. Others put Carter Jensen on that list, which is understandable, but I believe KC should at least listen to what would be offered for the young catcher.
Michael Wacha, Daniel Lynch IV and John Schreiber are pitchers who could be traded. Maybe even Matt Strahm if a team is desperate for a left-handed pitcher with postseason experience.
Lane Thomas is the most likely position player to be traded since he hits lefties well and has postseason experience.
I’m curious to see what the active roster looks like next week. I’m guessing it will be fewer than 17 names matching the Opening Day roster.
The Looping Liner Euro vacation
My wife and I joined four friends on vacation to Belfast, Liverpool and Cork recently (which prompted my absence the past few weeks).
It was an incredible time visiting places we’ve never been to before, interacting with locals and experiencing new things.
This trip had interesting timing to it, too. It was put together because my wife and I won tickets to attend The Open golf tournament in Southport, which is just north of Liverpool. Our group of six built a travel plan around the day we’d be at The Golf (as the locals called it) and went on our way.
We were in Belfast first and didn’t realize that July 11-12 were important dates in the city – the Eleventh Night and the Twelfth parades that commemorate the Protestant King William III’s 1690 victory over the Catholic King James II.
If you know anything about Northern Ireland and Belfast, you likely know of the tension between Protestants and Catholics. Everything is pretty calm now, but the vibes in Belfast were definitely different on July 11 compared to our first two days there.
We had a pub across from our hotel where we would catch World Cup games. It was fun and relaxed the first two nights, but there was an increased security presence on July 11. July 12 was a Sunday, and the parades were actually on July 13 this year so we missed them due to our flight to Liverpool. Still, we noticed a lot of businesses simply closed up for the entire weekend.
Liverpool was quite something as we did The Beatles Experience, visited the Cavern Club (which is adjacent to the original Cavern Club where The Beatles actually played), walked Mathew Street and visited Royal Albert Dock. We also popped into several pubs on our journey and, man-oh-man, they really have gorgeous pubs across the pond.
Our second interesting timing event came with England’s World Cup match against Argentina. It was an amazing experience sitting in an English pub while their football team was in the World Cup semifinal. I wonder what the party would have looked like if the Three Lions had won.
Emily and I walked approximately 1,000 miles at the first round of The Open, but at least there wasn’t any shade. I’m being sarcastic, but I genuinely had a good time. It was another “never thought I’d experience this in my life” moment and I’ll always remember it.
We then ventured to Cork, Ireland where we had funny timing moment No. 3. July 19 was the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final between Galway and Limerick. My friend Kevin and I had become intrigued by hurling in our first trip to Ireland in 2024 and jumped at the chance to watch the championship with locals in a brewery. Limerick took the anticipation out of it, though, giving Galway a fair beating.
We took a day trip to Cobh and walked one of the steepest hills I’ve ever seen – a picture that doesn’t do it justice is at the top of this article. The views were worth it, though, as Cobh is a gorgeous port town. We spent our final night in a castle in Dublin before flying home.
It’s good to be back though, and I’m ready to see how the rest of the 2026 season plays out for the Royals.
