Exploring Salvador Perez’s Hall of Fame case: Accolades? Yeah! Analytics? Well...

Many players have pleasant enough faces on their Baseball Hall of Fame plaques. Some are serious, but most feature nice smiles cast in bronze.

Salvador Perez could take it to another level. If it’s not filled with a megawatt grin, the kind you see as he’s sneaking up on a teammate’s postgame interview with a bucket of ice water, the artist will have failed to capture the essence of one of the all-time most popular and greatest Royals.

Are we getting a little ahead of ourselves, shaping Perez’s plaque of baseball immortality?

The topic seems to have come up often this season, especially as Perez crosses milestones and adds nice numbers to his career totals. Helping push the topic: The Royals are having an unexpectedly good season, taking a 52-45 record into the All-Star break a year after a 106-loss season.

Selected to his ninth AL All-Star team, the Midsummer Classic on Tuesday at Globe Life Stadium provides an opportunity to evaluate Perez’s Hall of Fame chances ... and discuss the matter with him.

“I do think about that,” Perez said. “If you’re a baseball player and you don’t think about that, you’re in the wrong sport. Everybody wants to be in the Hall of Fame. You don’t know if you’re going to make it or not. But that’s the type of mentality you have to have.”

Perez’s solid 2024 season continued with his team-leading 17th home run in Sunday’s loss at the Boston Red Sox. He’s on pace for 29 homers and 105 RBIs, which would be eclipsed only by his monster 2021 season: an AL-leading 48 home runs and 121 RBIs.

Add to that some career totals and the portrait of a promising Hall of Fame candidate emerges, even if Perez doesn’t accomplish much more in his career.

“Hey, I’m not done yet,” he said with a laugh. “I’m only 34. Let’s see what you’ve done after 15, 20 years.”

Perez is in his 13th season, all with the Royals, with a contract that takes him through 2025 and a club option for 2026. That last part, the option, is looking more likely by the game.

“If you told me Salvador Perez was playing at 40 years old, I wouldn’t debate you,” former Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “His love and enthusiasm will propel him to continue to play and continue to achieve.”

Perez is stacking achievements. Twelve catchers have been selected to more All-Star Games. Nine are in the Hall of Fame, and one, Yadier Molina, is not yet eligible.

Five catchers have won more than Perez’s five Gold Gloves. Eight have won more than his four Silver Sluggers. Twice, Perez won both in the same season ... and only two players — Hall of Famers Ivan Rodriguez and Joe Mauer — did that more often.

He’s been a World Series MVP, hit the most home runs in a season while playing at least 75% of his games at catcher, and his 262 career home runs are the fourth most by a primary catcher with a single franchise.

But there are also complications for Perez when comparing him to the 20 Hall of Famers who were primarily catchers.

The analytics don’t love him. His career WAR — wins above replacement — stands at 34.9, which places him 30th all-time among catchers. Fangraphs WAR dings Perez for his defense despite the Gold Gloves and ranks him in the 130s.

“A huge amount of the Hall of Fame talk in the last few years has built around WAR; there’s simply no way around that,” said best-selling author and former Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski.

Some catchers with impressive credentials have found the Hall’s doors closed. The Tigers’ Bill Freehan was an 11-time All-Star with five Gold Gloves. Thurman Munson won a Rookie of the Year, MVP and two World Series rings with the Yankees before his life was tragically cut short in a plane crash. Neither is in the Hall of Fame.

Ken Rosenthal, Fox Sports field reporter and senior writer for The Athletic, brings up the case of Jorge Posada: 17 years with the Yankees, 275 home runs, 1,065 RBIs, five-time All-Star, five Silver Sluggers, four-time World Series winner ... and he was named on 3.8% of the ballots in 2017.

“In some ways, my gut says ‘yes’ about (Perez),” Rosenthal said. “But then some would say, ‘Where’s Posada?’”

Other numbers will favor Perez. If he reaches 300 home runs and 1,000 RBI (currently at 863), he will rank among the top 10 Hall of Fame catchers in both categories.

And as one of baseball’s most positive forces, he smiles. A lot. When his candidacy is considered five years after his final season, that won’t hurt Perez’s chances to follow George Brett as the next primary Royals player into the Hall of Fame.

“He’s been the heart and soul of a resurgent Kansas City team, he plays the game with love and passion, he’s a leader and as beloved as anyone in team history,” Posnanski said.

Perez’s big heart was on display a few years ago for Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman. The latter player’s Oregon State team opened the season with games at the Royals’ spring training site in Surprise, Arizona.

“I watched him take (batting practice) and got to talk to him after the round. I was just a college kid,” said Rutschman, the American League’s starting catcher for Tuesday’s All-Star Game. “But the respect and kindness that he treated me with when he didn’t have to always stuck with me. Now I get to talk with him at an All-Star Game.”

If Perez isn’t there yet, he seems to be on a Hall of Fame path.

“This will be tough,” Posnanski said. “But Salvy has some career left to achieve things, and I do believe that people will rally around his Hall of Fame case.”