SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) - Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez is set to have another test on his left knee after getting injured in a collision with Royals backup catcher Drew Butera in the World Baseball Classic.
Perez is returning to the Royals' spring training camp today and will have an MRI. The four-time All-Star and 2015 World Series MVP was hurt Saturday in Mexico while playing for Venezuela and is out of the tournament.
"The doctors told me that I will be out for a couple of weeks," Perez said Sunday before Venezuela's game against Mexico in Guadalajara. "There's no structural damage. ... Thank God this is not going to keep me away for months. I will be ready for opening day."
Royals general manager Dayton Moore said he's still not at ease with Perez's injury.
"Not until he gets back playing," Moore said Sunday. "He has had an MRI. It's a little inconclusive, but it's encouraging."
The original diagnosis was inflammation but no structural damage.
"He's going to be OK, we think," Royals manager Ned Yost said Sunday.
Yost said catching coach Pedro Grifol and Royals head trainer Nick Kenney spent most of the night talking to Perez and the Venezuela training staff.
"He feels much better," Yost said. "He felt better last night."
Butera was playing for Italy and trying to score the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Butera seemed to try to hold up and limit contact, but stumbled into Perez and was tagged out. Perez struggled to put weight on the leg as he was helped off the field.
"I talked to him (Butera). He is a tremendous person and one of my best friends in the club," Perez said. "He told me that he was sorry and he was crying. I felt bad for him, but that's the nature of this tournament. When you are playing for your flag you want to do the best to win. In the play he wanted to avoid the collision but it was so fast that he couldn't do it. Sometimes things like that happen."
Perez had homered in the ninth inning. The Gold Glove winner has averaged 137.5 games per season behind the plate during the past four years and had surgery in 2012 for a tear in his left knee.
Yost acknowledged Butera did nothing wrong on the play
Perez hit .247 with 22 home runs and 64 RBI last year. Butera hit .285 with four home runs in 123 at-bats.
Cam Gallagher, a 24-year-old prospect who was a 2011 second-round pick with has no major league experience, and veteran Brayan Pena are the top two healthy catchers in camp.
Yost said despite Perez's injury, he is still in favor of the WBC for the "globalization" of the game.