Royals catcher Salvador Perez suffers knee injury during World Baseball Classic (video)

Major injuries can happen at any time, but Royals catcher Salvador Perez may miss more important games after being injured during the World Baseball Classic.

The World Baseball Classic brings a slightly early start to spring training in the years it happens, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But players also leave their teams to play for their country, and sometimes have to play catch-up early in the season if they didn’t play much during the time they could have been ramping up in regular spring training.

Injuries can obviously happen at any time. But losing a key player to a major injury, in essentially a set of meaningless games, is something all teams want to avoid. After what happened during Saturday’s WBC game between Venezuela and Italy, the Kansas City Royals are surely praying for good news.

During a play at the plate, Royals (and Team Venezuela) catcher Salvador Perez was injured in a collision with Team Italy catcher Drew Butera.  Perez appeared to suffer a serious left knee injury, and an initial report from Marly Rivera of ESPN Deportes suggested he could not put any weight on the injured leg.

Here’s a clip of the play. It’s not incredibly graphic, but Perez’s left leg clearly bends awkwardly so be aware of that.

Perez is one of the most durable catchers in all of baseball, with at least 138 games played and over 1,100 innings caught in four straight seasons. Purely by coincidence, so forget your conspiracy theories, Butera is entering his second full season as a backup catcher for Kansas City.

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More recent reports from Rivera indicate Perez does not have a serious injury, pending the results of an MRI, which is good news based on his inability to walk immediately afterward. But he’s almost surely done participating in the World Baseball Classic this year, if the Royals have any say in the matter.