Mar 12, 2024; Salt River Pima-Maricopa, Arizona, USA; General view of Kansas City Royals hats and gloves in the first inning against the Colorado Rockies during a spring training game at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images

Young Royals Backstop 'Worth A Late Season Watch' Per Royals Writer

Originally posted on Kansas City Royals on SI
By Curt Bishop | Last updated Aug 12, 2025 2:00 PM ET

The Kansas City Royals are barely hanging around in the American League Wild Card race. Even after buying at the trade deadline and landing pieces such as Randal Grichuk, Adam Frazier, Mike Yastrzemski, Stephen Kolek, Ryan Bergert and Bailey Falter, they are four games back with three teams in front of them for the final spot.

Things will be interesting to watch down the stretch for the Royals. If they don't turn things around, we may see them ultimately decide to put players on waivers for the stretch run. They are loaded with catchers in their system, and not enough places to put them

Andrew Banks of Kings of Kauffman made a list of players from each Royals minor league team to keep an eye on as the 2025 season draws to a close. Among them was top catching prospect Carter Jensen.

Royals Young Backstop Worth A Watch Down The Stretch

"Omaha was missing some juice and excitement once Jac Caglianone graduated, but Carter Jensen has come in and immediately filled some of that void," Banks wrote.

The young backstop - and No. 2 overall Royals prospect according to MLB Pipeline - started the year at Double-A, and figured to spend all of 2025 there. Jensen showed enough improvement at the plate to earn his spot in Omaha, and he hasn’t disappointed."

Jensen is currently hitting .255/.367/.559 with a .926 OPS and 15 percent walk rate. Perhaps he could be somebody the Royals keep an eye on for the future. Right now, Salvador Perez is the starting catcher, but the Royals could potentially decide to push Jensen to the big leagues and give him an opportunity to learn from Perez as he prepares to take the next step in 2026.

Even with the Royals struggling to stay in contention, they are an interesting team to watch due to the depth they have in their minor league system, and that depth could help them bounce right back into postseason contention in 2026.

It will certainly be interesting to see what Jensen brings to the table, but there is little more the young catcher can do at the minor league level. His bat is showing a lot of promise as the stretch run of the 2025 season gets underway.

We'll see if he potentially receives a call-up to the Major Leagues before long.

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This article first appeared on Kansas City Royals on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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