Exploring Royals Catching Metrics: Throwing – Royals

Royals Spring Training Opening Day is Friday, which means that we will be experiencing a continuous stretch of baseball from now until the All-Star Break. With games finally starting, I wanted to finish my three-part series on Royals catcher metrics before we started getting data from actual games in 2026.

In part one, I looked at blocking metrics, and in part two, I looked at framing metrics. In this final edition, I will be exploring throwing metrics of Royals catchers and how they compared to other catchers in Major League Baseball last season. 

Royals Fared Well in Catcher Poptime

To dive into deeper Statcast metrics, it’s important to understand poptime. Below is the definition of poptime, according to Baseball Savant, along with benchmarks for not just poptime but also the exchange from catching to throwing the ball to a particular base. 

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Pop Time measures the time from the moment the pitch hits the catcher’s mitt to the moment the ball reaches the fielder’s projected receiving point at the center of the base. Pop Time is a combination of exchange time (how quickly the catcher releases the ball, measured in seconds) and arm strength (velocity of throw, in MPH). Arm strength is measured on “max effort” throws, or the average above a player’s 90th percentile performance.
The Major League average Pop Time on steal attempts of second base is 2.0 seconds. Average times are calculated with the following ranges.
Pop Time to 2B: 1.6 sec to 2.5 sec
Pop Time to 3B: 1.2 sec to 2.5 sec
Exchange: .4 sec to 1.3 sec

As in my previous posts, I wanted to see how Royals catchers ranked among qualified MLB catchers. Thus, in the Datawrapper table below, I highlighted Freddy Fermin and Salvador Perez, the only Royals catchers who qualified (Luke Maile and Carter Jensen did not). 

When it came to blocking metrics, Royals catchers ranked near the bottom of the league. In terms of framing, it was better than in seasons past, but still ranked toward the middle or lower quadrant of the league. 

In terms of poptime? Fermin ranked 11th in poptime to second base, and Perez ranked 26th. Their poptimes also ranked in the upper percentiles, a far cry from their blocking and framing metrics last season. They both achieved those times in different ways, however. 

Perez’s arm strength (which measures throws by MPH) was low at 78.6 MPH, which ranked 72nd of this 84-catcher sample. However, he had a top-20 exchange time at 0.63 seconds. Fermin was good on both ends. Not only did he have the same exchange time as Salvy, but he also threw the ball 84 MPH, which ranked 24th. 

Fermin and Perez excelled when it came to throwing the ball, especially to second base. However, how did Jensen and Maile fare in their smaller samples? Surprisingly, even better, as fans can see in the table below.

 Fermin is not listed in this sample. That said, Jensen was a carbon copy in terms of arm strength (84.6 MPH) and exchange (0.63 seconds). Maile wasn’t much in those categories, though his arm strength (83.3 MPH) and exchange (0.69 seconds) were a little lower than the Royals’ top prospect. 

When it comes to pure throwing skills, Jensen has the tools to handle MLB base stealers. His 1.87 pop time was 0.06 seconds better than Perez’s and even 0.03 points better than Fermin’s last year. Granted, the sample for Jensen was much smaller, but the Park Hill product’s solid poptime metrics are probably a prime reason why the Royals felt comfortable parting ways with Fermin at last year’s Trade Deadline. 

Salvy and the Royals’ Catchers Kept Base Stealers at Bay

Having great poptime is one thing. Transitioning those skills into actual outs is another challenge. Thus, it’s important to see how many of the Royals’ catchers’ throws turned into outs last season, and how many runs that saved the Kansas City pitching staff. 

Caught Stealing Above Average (CSAA) is one of the key metrics used to determine a catcher’s effectiveness at preventing stolen bases. Here is the definition of CSAA, some nuances about the metric, and Catcher Stealing runs, which is a product of CSAA. 

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Caught Stealing Above Average is the difference between actual caught stealing and estimate caught stealing based on the attempts seen. Catcher Stealing Runs is a translation of Caught Stealing Above Average to a run value on a .65 runs/CS basis, the difference between a SB (+.2 runs) and a CS (-.45 runs).

Let’s take a look below at how Fermin and Perez ranked among MLB catchers last year in terms of CSAA.

Perez and Fermin were even more impressive in CSAA. Salvy ranked 8th in baseball with a +4 CSAA, and Fermin ranked 19th with a +2 CSAA. Furthermore, Perez ranked third in CS rate (40%) and sixth in CSAA per throw (0.14). As for Freddy, he ranked 23rd in CS rate (25%) and 14th in CSAA per throw (0.06). Those are solid marks and explain why Royals catchers were held in so high regard defensively last season.

Now, let’s take a look at how Maile and Jensen fared in those metrics as well (and how they compared to Fermin and Perez). 

As expected, Jensen looked good in his caught stealing metrics, especially in CSAA per throw, which was 0.15. That was 0.01 better than Salvy and 0.17 points better than Fermin. Maile, on the other hand, didn’t fare well when it came to throwing out runners last year. He not only had a -1 CS run and CSAA, but his -0.24 CAA per throw was the worst mark of the four Royals catchers from last season. 

Because of the production of these four Royals catchers, Kansas City ranked 11th in total CSAA last season, according to Baseball Savant. They also ranked 4th in CS% (29%) and 6th in CAA per throw (0.05).

With the return of Perez and Jensen, Kansas City should be a scary team again in 2026 for opposing baserunners. 

Final Thoughts On the Royals’ Catcher Metrics

When it comes to Kansas City catchers’ defensive data, the following takeaways could be made.

The blocking is a problem. Perez and Jensen fared pretty poorly in this category last year, and they likely are making improvement a priority in 2026, especially in Spring Training. It would help if they had better consistency in the pitching staff, as I do believe the shuffling of so many starting pitchers didn’t make things easier for Salvy, Fermin, Maile, and Jensen. 

The framing was surprising, and the improvement over the past three years under bench coach Paul Hoover is not talked about enough. The Royals were arguably the WORST team in baseball when it came to framing and getting extra strikes. Now? They’re middle of the pack. That’s tremendous growth and should only help the pitching staff in 2026, though the ABS challenge installation this year could minimize the impact of catcher framing (not as much as some may think). 

The Royals’ throwing as a catching group is elite. That said, while Fermin and Jensen contributed positively in this area, most of the focus should be diverted to Salvy. His throwing metrics should be a big reason why Perez deserves a Hall of Fame case in Cooperstown.

It’s one thing to be an excellent-hitting catcher. However, to do that and still have elite poptime and caught stealing numbers at 35 years old is incredible and not talked about enough. Heck, just watch this throw out of Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez, one of the league’s better base stealers, on March 29th this season and tell me that he’s not a Hall of Fame catcher. 

The Royals catchers may not get the defensive love that teams like the Giants, Orioles, Mets, Phillies, or Guardians receive. That said, Kansas City has been much better behind the dish than some experts give them credit for. The encouraging framing and throwing metrics outweigh the brutal blocking numbers. 

Furthermore, they should be even better in 2026, especially with Salvy showing such solid throwing ability and Jensen perhaps being a younger, maybe slightly better version of Perez at catching runners on the basepaths (we just need to see a bigger sample at the Major League level).