FORT MYERS, Fla. -- It's a baseball truism: one team's misfortune can mean opportunity for another.
The Kansas City Royals Friday announced that All-Star catcher Salvador Perez suffered an injury to the UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) in his right elbow earlier in the week and will seek a second opinion early next week. Typically, a torn UCL requires Tommy John surgery to repair the problem, which would sideline Perez for the season.
The Royals have little catching depth in their system and almost certainly would need to go outside the organization to find experienced help. Martin Maldonado, who split time between Anaheim and Houston last year, remains available on the free agent market should the Royals pursue that path.
Or, they could make a deal with the Red Sox, who are known to be eager to move one of their catchers before the start of the regular season, now less than four weeks away.
Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in January that it's his expectation that the Sox will carry just two catchers this season and predicted the Sox would deal one before the end of spring training.
To date, Dombrowski has yet to find equal value in any discussions he's had. It seems unlikely that Sandy Leon would be made available, since he's popular with the veteran Red Sox starting pitchers and has more value to the Sox than he would to another organization.
That leaves either Christian Vazquez or Blake Swihart as potential trade candidates. BostonSportsJournal.com reported last month that the Sox would prefer to obtain some younger, controllable starting pitching in exchange for a catcher.
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