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Perez avoids DL, will miss 7-10 days with quad contusion

John Rieger / USA TODAY Sports

An MRI on Salvador Perez's ailing left leg revealed no structural damage, though the Kansas City Royals' beloved catcher is expected to miss 7-10 days with a quad contusion, manager Ned Yost told reporters ahead of Sunday's series finale against the Chicago White Sox.

Perez, who has caught 42 more games since 2013 (464) than the second-most-prolific catcher, wasn't placed on the DL, Yost explained, because the Royals didn't want to sideline him for 15 days to nurse an injury that might only keep him out of the lineup a week.

Though the Royals will operate with only 24 available players on their roster for the next little while, Perez's prognosis has to be seen as relatively positive for a Royals team reeling from the losses of both Mike Moustakas and Alex Gordon. Following last Sunday's collision, the former will miss the rest of 2016 with a torn ACL, while the latter is out three-to-four weeks with a broken wrist.

Still, though, Yost couldn't help feeling that Perez wouldn't have gotten hurt had Moustakas been out there at third Saturday instead of Cheslor Cuthbert, who forced Perez to an early exit after colliding with him in the ninth inning of Saturday's 8-7 victory over Chicago.

"It's just one of those situations where, you don't want to put blame on anybody, but that wouldn't have happened with (Moustakas)," Yost said. "Because they've played together so long, and (Moustakas) knows what Salvy's capabilities are, and Ches just put his head down and came hard. It's kind of unfortunate, but we'll just see where we end up."

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