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Everyone is feeling the same way about Royals catcher Carter Jensen originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Carter Jensen has the difficult task of breaking into the Kansas City Royals' lineup as a catcher.
For the last decade-plus, of course, that spot has belonged to the legendary Salvador Perez, and Salvy isn't going anywhere yet.
That doesn't mean Jensen won't contribute to start the 2026 MLB season, though. Everyone believes in him.
The Fangraphs Roster Resource page for the Royals projects Jensen to bat seventh in the Kansas City order as the DH to begin the season.
Fangraphs also projects Jensen to have a 102 wRC+, above league average.
Maybe even more notable is how MLB.com's Mike Petriello feels about Jensen. He projects him as one of his seven breakout hitters for the 2026 season.
"Among players who had at least 50 plate appearances, Jensen’s barrel rate was the highest in the sport, where Judge, Ohtani, and Pete Alonso were next," Petriello writes of the 2025 season. "We cannot stress enough that 69 plate appearances are something like 10% of what those stars took, and that in no way does this say that Jensen is as talented as they are. What it does say, though, is that he didn’t dink-and-dunk-and-good-luck his way to fluky numbers over a few weeks."
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Jensen had a .941 OPS in those 69 plate appearances, and as Petriello writes, it was legit.
The Royals certainly know that. They'll give Jensen plenty of chances to swing the bat in the early going of this season.
And if he lives up to even close of that level of hitting, Kansas City will be quite a dangerous foe for opposing pitchers.
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