Royals boast promising backstops at instructs

Salvador Perez has started the past three All-Star Games behind the plate for the American League, and the Royals have more catching talent on the way.

Kansas City has high hopes for Chase Vallot, a supplemental first-round pick from the 2014 Draft, and Meibrys Viloria, the Rookie-level Pioneer League MVP Award winner this summer. They’re two of the 74 players who reported to the Royals’ instructional league program in Surprise, Ariz., which began on Sept. 18 and will run through Oct. 14. They’ll field two rosters, one for more advanced players, when they begin playing games against other organizations on Monday.

Vallot, Viloria and Xavier Fernandez will handle the catching chores for the advanced squad. Kansas City farm director Ronnie Richardson said the focus will be receiving, blocking and game-calling — “all those intricacies that it takes to be a special catcher like Salvador Perez.”

Vallot is coming off the best offensive season of his three-year pro career after batting .235/.356/.454 with 15 homers in 92 games, mostly at low Class A Lexington. His defense is more of a work in progress, as he threw out 26 percent of basestealers and committed 17 passed balls in 58 games behind the plate. Vallot lost some valuable development time in June when he missed two weeks after getting banged up in a home-plate collision, then two more when he got hit in the face by a pitch in his first game back.

“Vallot is good to go and he’s all pumped up,” Richardson said. “He’s running around all over the place. He’s one of the leaders of this program. He’s been here before and he helps set the tone for the other players.”

Viloria has raised his profile considerably after going through the entire 2015 season without an extra-base hit in 45 games. This year, he led the Pioneer League in hitting (.376), …

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