Did Salvador Perez Break George Brett’s Home Run Record? Not Yet — Here’s Where It Stands

Salvador Perez: 317 career home runs. George Brett: 317. They are tied atop the Royals franchise list, and they have been since Wednesday night.

Perez tied it on July 22 at Kauffman Stadium — a two-run shot, Statcast-projected 437 feet, into the right-center field fountains, in a 5-4 win over the San Francisco Giants that completed a sweep. Brett had held the mark alone since April 9, 1986. It stood for 40 years.

One more and Perez owns it outright.

Perez had five plate appearances against the Tigers and did not go deep.

- 1st inning — walk - 3rd inning — strikeout swinging - 5th inning — groundout to third - 7th inning — flyout to right - 9th inning — grounded into a double play

He finished 0-for-4 with a walk, and the Royals lost 4-3. The double play ended the game with Kansas City down a run — an unceremonious way for a record chase to spend an evening.

He sits on 14 home runs for the 2026 season.

Kansas City is in the middle of a four-game series at Comerica Park. Perez has three more games against Detroit before the series ends:

- Friday, July 24 — 5:40 p.m. CT - Saturday, July 25 — 12:10 p.m. CT - Sunday, July 26 — 12:40 p.m. CT

One note for whoever is sitting in the outfield when it finally happens: Comerica Park has no fountains. Which brings us to the best story of the week.

When no. 317 came down in the Kauffman fountains, a man went into the water after it. That part you have probably heard. Two things about it are widely reported wrong.

First: he was not arrested. The Kansas City Police Department said an individual was "cited and released for trespassing in the fountain." Royals policy states that a guest who enters a fountain "will be immediately arrested, transported to the police station downtown and charged to the fullest extent of the law." He got a citation instead.

Second: he was not doing it for himself. The man is a friend of Kayla Mitchell, who was at the game with her son Palmer. Palmer had recently come through a tympanoplasty at Children's Mercy Kansas City — surgery to repair a ruptured eardrum — and lives with permanent hearing loss.

"Salvy's ball had to come right at us," Mitchell said. "Uncatchable for any of us, so my friend took the liberty, and took it upon himself to jump in the fountain and get the ball." They held it about five minutes before it was taken; the family received bobbleheads, baseballs and a signed bat.

Her account of why: "There was no negative, there was no ill intent, he wanted no money, he wanted nothing out of the deal. He was truly just doing it for our son and I find that to be amazing."

Perez, asked about it after the game, argued for him: "Please, police, just take care of the job please and send him home. If was him, I'd maybe jump too and try to get that ball, so please."

Brett hit his 317 across 21 seasons, 1973 through 1993, all in Kansas City.

Perez has done it in 15. He debuted in 2011 and missed the entire 2019 season after Tommy John surgery — sixteen calendar years, fifteen of them played.

And he has done it from behind the plate. Catcher is the position that subtracts seasons from a career rather than adding them. Perez is 36, still catching, still hitting in the middle of the order.