It may seem strange to claim that someone whose tenure with a bad, non-contending team lasted less than four months still played a key role for that club. But that's precisely what Martín Maldonado did in his short 2019 stay with the 103-loss Kansas City Royals.
That KC season began without Salvador Perez. Coming off his sixth-straight All-Star campaign during which he slugged a career-high-tying 27 homers and matched another career-best by driving in 80 runs, Perez suffered a torn UCL in spring training. The injury knocked him out for the season and left the Royals without a frontline starting catcher.