The state of catching in fantasy baseball was already quite brutal before the weekend news that Kansas City Royals starter Salvador Perez, hitter of 27 home runs in each of the past two seasons and boasting four consecutive campaigns of 20 or more, hurt his throwing elbow. Fantasy managers generally think the worst whenever an elbow is involved and in this case, there was ample reason for pessimism: Perez will likely miss the entire 2019 season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
A top-5 catcher in ADP by any measure, Perez was more of a mid-round pick overall, as fantasy managers in ESPN standard leagues, in which only one backstop is needed and few are difference-makers, do tend to wait longer to fill the position; until the final rounds in many cases. In multi-catcher formats, the strategy is clearly different, but it is not as if a new catcher suddenly became relevant thanks to the Perez injury, as is normally the case if a closer misses time, for example. The Royals have to go with Cameron Gallagher. Perhaps the non-contending Royals sign a catcher, but fantasy managers should not clamor for the likes of free agent Martin Maldonado, either.