g catcher Salvador Perez Delino DeShields Jersey , who will reportedly miss the entire 2019 season with an elbow injury.Per MLB Network's Jon Heyman, doctors have recommended Perez have Tommy John surgery, and he's expected to undergo the procedure next week.Per MLB.com's Jeffrey Flanagan, the Royals announced Friday their All-Star catcher will be out indefinitely after an MRI showed damage in his UCL.The Royals said in a statement Perez suffered the injury during Wednesday's spring training workout. He will visit Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles for a second opinion next week.Perez has been hit by injuries in each of the previous two seasons. He missed two weeks in August 2017 due to an intercostal strain and the first 20 games in 2018 with an MCL tear.With Perez expected to miss the entire season, Cam Gallagher will likely take over behind the plate. Kansas City will host the Chicago White Sox in its season opener March 28.Since taking over as Kansas City's starter in 2013, Perez has established himself as one of MLB's best catchers. The Venezuela native ranks sixth among all players at the position with 14.2 FanGraphs wins above replacement over the past six seasons and tied his career high with 27 homers last season. Who needs Yasmani Grandal?"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections 2019 Spring TrainingProspectsCommentaryNews and NotesCommentary2019 Spring TrainingAustin Barnes’ hot spring gives hope for strong 2019New Joey Gallo Jersey ,155commentsWho needs Yasmani Grandal?PDTShareTweetShareShareAustin Barnes’ hot spring gives hope for strong 2019Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY SportsThe last thing any of us should do is get excited about Spring Training stats and performances. Remember Brian Barden? Didn’t think so.But what Austin Barnes is doing this spring is encouraging, even if it doesn’t necessarily mean a thing for his performance this season.He has big shoes to replace, as the Dodgers opted not to bring back Yasmani Grandal (after extending him the qualifying offer). They also opted to pass on trading for J.T. Realmuto and instead brought in 36-year-old Russell Martin to, essentially, be Barnes’ backup.Barnes is coming off a really rough season. His 77 wRC+ was seventh-worst among catchers in baseball with at least 230 plate appearances. His power all but disappeared (.290 slugging, .085 isolated power) and his strikeout rate jumped almost 12 percentage points from his 2017 mark of 16.4 percent.He was a mess last season. He dealt with an elbow problem — reported in February 2017 — which could have been the culprit of his poor offensive season. There’s no definitive proof http://www.rangersfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-moore-jersey , but Barnes’ numbers in 2018 were more than him regressing to the mean.Barnes’ batted ball numbers went the wrong direction in every significant category last season from his marks in 2017.Austin Barnes Batted Ball ProfileYearLD%GB%Exit VeloLaunch AngleFly Ball Dist.All FB Dist.YearLD%GB%Exit VeloLaunch AngleFly Ball Dist.All FB Dist.The biggest thing that stands out here is the launch angle and the distance (in feet) when it comes to all non-ground balls (i.e., fly balls, line drives and pop-ups). The MLB average exit velocity last season was 87.7 mph last season, while Barnes’ was 86.3 mph. Those numbers show that Barnes was just pounding the ball into the ground, and not hitting the ball particularly hard to begin with.Already this spring, Barnes has two home runs — one to the opposite field. That’s something he’s done just once in his MLB career to date. I’m not saying one opposite-field home run means the 2017 version of Barnes is back. But what he has done in the Cactus League so far is encouraging and at least gives a glimmer of hope that he can be closer to the ‘17 version of himself than the ‘18 version. If he’s somewhere in the middle Ferguson Jenkins Jersey , you’re looking at a Top 5-10 catcher when you factor in his framing ability (among the best in the game).If that ends up being the case, then that’s one hole the Dodgers won’t have to fill at the trading deadline. It would also allow Martin to appear in fewer games, thus (in theory) making him more valuable at this stage of his career.We’ve wondered what the Dodgers were going to do at catcher over the course of the winter. It appears they may have just “fixed” Austin Barnes. And that’s a good thing.