The Kansas City Royals have been one of, if not the most surprising team in baseball so far this season and currently sit just 1.5 games out of first place in the AL Central with a 30-19 record.
This is beyond just a hot start, as we are now roughly a third of the way through the season, and the Royals are on pace for 99 wins and are already finding themselves in elite company league-wide.
MLB on FOX shared a post on Twitter that detailed the elite company the Royals have already found themselves in, as the Royals are now the fifth team to reach 30 wins this season, joining the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Cleveland Guardians, and Philadelphia Phillies.
Prior to the season, no one would have been surprised that those other four squads were among the first five to reach 30 wins, but the Royals lost 106 games last year and had the second-worst record in the league.
Nobody could have seen this coming.
Kansas City is already over halfway to last season’s win total, and a big reason why is the resurgence of franchise favorite Salvador Perez.
Perez posted a .714 OPS last season and was starting to look like his career was on its last legs, but he has exploded out of the gate this year to the tune of a .341 average, nine homers, and 38 RBI.
He also has improved upon his biggest weakness over his career with 14 walks already, which is halfway to his career high of 28.
It has been a thrilling ride for Royals fans so far, and they have been one of the best stories to follow through the season’s first two months.