The following is a press release from the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, provided here in its entirety.

Salvador Perez promoted to KC
Affable, able defender to get extended look

KANSAS CITY, MO – MLB.com is reporting that the Kansas City Royals have promoted former Naturals’ backstop Salvador Perez to the major leagues.

Perez is expected to join the Royals for Wednesday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays and is expected to remain with the club for the rest of the season.

He’ll replace catcher Brayan Pena, who is going to Miami for the birth of his child and is on paternity leave. That left the Royals with only Manny Pina, another former Natural, to catch because veteran backstop Matt Treanor is on the disabled list with a concussion.

Perez, called up from Triple-A Omaha, has adapted well since his promotion to the Pacific Coast League. In 12 games, he’s batted .333 (16-for-48) with five doubles, a home run and 10 RBIs. With the Naturals, Perez hit .283 with eight homers, 43 RBIs in 79 games.

Perez also represented the Naturals in San Antonio at this year’s Texas League All-Star Game, having wowed the circuit’s voting personnel mostly with his defense and game calling ability. At the time of his promotion, Perez was the best catcher in the league at throwing out runners, gunning down 47.8% of runners attempting to steal against him (43 CS in 90 attempts). Signed by Kansas City as a non-drafted free agent in September of 2006, the Valencia, Ven. resident was ranked prior to the season as the Royals’ 17^th best prospect by Baseball America.

The Royals cleared room on the 40-man roster for Perez by placing right-hander Kyle Davies on unconditional release waivers Wednesday. Davies made two rehab starts for the Naturals in the season’s first half.

Perez’ arrival in Kansas City marks the 11^th player on the current Royals 25-Man big league roster to have played for the Naturals since their inaugural season in 2008.

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals and play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark, located in Springdale. Visit our website, nwanaturals.com, for information on season tickets and ticket plans.

The Memphis Redbirds announced a roster move on April 25th, returning Andrew Brown to the active roster and placing struggling outfielder Daryl Jones on the disabled list. At the time of publishing, it is unknown what the injury is to Jones.

Daryl Jones in the Arizona Fall League

Brown, listed on the roster as an infielder, was involved in a collision with Shane Robinson while playing the outfield earlier in the season. Robinson would take much more serious injuries, though both players would be listed as having concussion syndromes. The team expressed optimism towards Brown returning on schedule and proved that to be the case by activating him.

Jones is a former top prospect in the organization that has struggled recently in the minor leagues. The Cardinals drafted him in the third round of the 2005 amateur draft at the age of 18. He would show the breakout statistics that the team was hoping for in 2008 as he split time between Double-A Springfield and High-A Palm Beach. The outfielder would produce a .316 batting average with a .407 on base percentage while slugging 13 home runs and 49 runs batted in and 24 stolen bases. The organization and scouts raved about the young man and his potential.

The injury bug would bite Jones over the next few years, limiting his time and his production at the Double-A level. While his production and playing time slowed, the organization decided to push him a bit this season, moving him up the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds in a move that seemed to be a challenge for him to realize his potential.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

Recently, during the first inning of a game with the Iowa Cubs on April 16, two Memphis outfielders collided while chasing a shallow fly ball. The collision was graphic, violent, and injured both of the young players involved.

I-70 Baseball broke down the events of this play with a link to the video associate and you can read that by clicking here.

Photo Courtesy of Erika Lynn

Today during a conversation with a Memphis Redbirds official, I received an update on the young outfielders and what their future may hold. The future, at least at this moment, is due to arrive much sooner for Andrew Brown.

Andrew Brown’s injuries from the collision were not as severe as those sustained by teammate Shane Robinson. The night of the injury Brown was released from the hospital with a concussion and returned to the team hotel. According to the team, the diagnosis for Brown is still a concussion and the team expects him to recover on the original time table.

As reported earlier, however, Shane Robinson suffered fractures to bones in his face as well as bones in his left hand. Robinson remained at the hospital that night as doctors continued to monitor his injuries. According to team officials, he will require surgery to repair both of the fractures and, to this date, neither surgery has taken place. The team chose not to disclose any more information concerning Robinson, even denying any questions concerning why he has not had surgery at this point.

I-70 Baseball will continue to monitor the situation and update our fans as the information is presented to us. Everyone continues to hope for a speedy recovery for both young men.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.