{"id":678844,"date":"2026-04-19T04:24:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678844\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T04:24:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:24:56","slug":"all-star-15-year-mlb-veteran-sharply-rebukes-manager-after-mental-breather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678844\/","title":{"rendered":"All-Star, 15-year MLB veteran, sharply rebukes manager after \u2018mental breather\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kansas City Royals<\/a> manager Matt Quatraro gave veteran catcher Salvador Perez<\/a> the day off April 18 for their game against the New York Yankees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perez didn\u2019t want it \u2014 and if that wasn\u2019t clear to Quatraro before the game, it became clear to the public immediately after the Royals lost 13-4 in The Bronx.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t need a mental breather,\u201d Perez wrote on his X account after the game.<\/p>\n

The statement was an obvious reference to Quatraro\u2019s comments to reporters before the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust looking at the way things have gone, he\u2019s played in every game,\u201d Quatraro said, via Anne Rogers of MLB.com. \u201cDay game after night game, Carter (Jensen) was going to catch today, and Salvy\u2019s been struggling a little bit. Just try to give him a little mental breather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perez, a nine-time All-Star, is hitting .160 with three home runs and six RBIs in his first 20 games of the season.<\/p>\n

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Whether Perez was not a fan of the day off, Quatraro\u2019s explanation for the day off, the fact that the manager made his reasoning public \u2014 or all of the above \u2014 is unclear.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear is that the 35-year-old veteran is not known for airing his internal grievances so publicly. The not-so-subtle reference to Quatraro\u2019s comment bothered him enough to take it directly to social media.<\/p>\n

Perez was only one of four Royals who had played every game through April 17. That\u2019s unusual for a 35-year-old, or a catcher, though six of his 20 starts were at designated hitter.<\/p>\n

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Against this backdrop, Perez could have expected a day off at some point. But why this one? The matchup against Yankees right-hander Will Warren<\/a> wasn\u2019t necessarily a bad one for him. Nor was Saturday\u2019s game a night game, like Quatraro suggested, but rather an afternoon game 24 hours after another afternoon game.<\/p>\n

Perhaps there is a subtext we\u2019re missing. At least Perez\u2019s feelings are crystal clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro gave veteran catcher Salvador Perez the day off April 18 for their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,55,2602,4,62,61246,373,772],"class_list":{"0":"post-678844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas-city-royals","10":"tag-matt-quatraro","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-night-game","14":"tag-salvador-perez","15":"tag-will-warren"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116429476560429753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}