The Royals are planning to call up catcher Elias Díaz from Triple-A, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. The ACES client is not on the 40-man roster, so corresponding moves will be needed.
Díaz, 35, signed a minor-league deal with Kansas City in late February and was invited to big-league Spring Training. While he batted .533/.533/.800 in six games there, he was mostly signed for depth given the presence of Salvador Perez and Carter Jensen. Starting the year at the Royals’ top affiliate, Díaz has so far batted .226/.294/.258 in 34 plate appearances. That’s admittedly a small sample, but it’s still pretty weak production even for the light-hitting veteran.
Instead, Díaz’s promotion could be about giving Perez a chance to rest and reset. Now in his age-36 season, the Royals’ captain has gotten out to a brutal start at the plate. In 81 PA across his first 20 games, Perez has batted just .160/.210/.307, which amounts to a meager 36 wRC+. His walk rate has mostly held constant from 2025, while his 21.0% strikeout rate is only a slight increase. Instead, Perez’s downturn has resulted from a drop in power as well as poor batted-ball luck. He posted a .209 isolated slugging percentage last year, but that has fallen to .147 so far in 2026. Of greater note is that Perez is batting just .161 on balls in play, which would easily be the worst mark of his career.
A look at Perez’s batted ball metrics offer some explanation. His average exit velocity has declined to 89.0 MPH, continuing a year-over-year decline since the 2024 season. Meanwhile, his soft and hard contact percentages have both trended in the wrong direction by about 7%. Obviously, it’s hard to draw conclusions from only 20 games’ worth of data, but the bottom line is that Perez has been a liability in the Royals’ offense to start the year. That led manager Matt Quatraro to give Perez a “mental breather” against the Yankees today by withholding him from the starting lineup (link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). Perez ultimately did not play in the game, which the Royals lost 13-4.
The fact that the Royals are bringing up Díaz despite his own lack of offense could signal a few more days off for Perez. In that scenario, the Royals would turn to Jensen as the starting catcher, with Díaz as the temporary backup. Jensen has a 97 wRC+ in 19 games as a DH and backup catcher to Perez. That’s a step down from the 159 wRC+ he posted last year, although that was also in a small sample of 69 PA. Nonetheless, Jensen has continued to hit for power, and his overall output is roughly average for catchers, so it makes sense to give him more playing time for now.
Meanwhile, Díaz joins the big-league club as a defensive backup. He was valued at -15 Defensive Runs Saved in 2022 for the Rockies, followed by -16 DRS in 2023. He’s mostly turned it around since then. Statcast gave him plus marks for his caught stealing rate, framing, and pop time in 2024, while his blocking graded out in the 61st percentile in 2025. Díaz hits from the right side, while Jensen hits from the left. Díaz has hit about the same against lefties and righties in his career, but he did better against righties in 2025. Jensen also hits righties better, so it’s unlikely the two will be used in a platoon arrangement. More likely is that Jensen starts every day while Díaz acts as a bench option until Perez is back in the lineup.
Corresponding moves for Díaz have not been announced. Outfielder Isaac Collins is currently day to day with a right knee contusion, according to the Royals’ injury report. He went through a full pregame workout yesterday, so he seems likely to avoid the injured list. On the pitching side, Mitch Spence threw 84 pitches in a four-inning relief appearance today. He could be sent down for active roster space, leaving the club with 12 pitchers rather than 13 in the short term. Clearing room on the 40-man roster would require one of the club’s injured players to be transferred to the 60-day IL, or someone else to be designated for assignment.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images
