Jensen added to a spectacular rookie campaign with an impressive feat on Saturday.
Carter Jensen has had himself a spectacular rookie season with the Kansas City Royals. On Saturday, he cemented his name on the Royals’ rookie all-time leaderboard by making history.
In the top of the third inning in the Royals’ contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jensen skied a ball over the right-center wall for his 25th homer of the season – which officially crowned him the rookie single-season home run leader.
Jensen surpassed Bob Hamelin’s previous total of 24 homers that had held the record since 1994. With just a week to go until the conclusion of the regular season, Jensen has yet to slow down in his dominant campaign and has continued to show promise towards the Royals’ future.
Not only has Jensen impressed this season, but the timing of his arrival comes at a rather intriguing time as he took over the majority of starts at catcher instead of longtime catcher Salvador Perez, who the Royals often opted to start at designated hitter and occasionally first base.
In just over 500 at-bats this season, Jensen has logged a .233 batting average to go with his 25 homers and 76 RBI. The 23-year-old rookie has also posted a .773 OPS to go with an impressive 3.4 fWAR and 112 wRC+.
The Royals had called up Jensen towards the end of the 2025 season, and even then he showed what he was capable of. Despite the smaller sample, Jensen’s numbers impressed with a 159 wRC+ in 69 plate appearances. His status as a rookie translated over to the 2026 season due to the limited time he spent on the field, and he has not skipped a beat since.
Jensen leads all Royals hitters this season in the home run category, currently besting Jac Caglianone narrowly, who has 23 homers to his name. The rookie also leads all Kansas City players in RBI with 76 and in total doubles, but has struck out the most on the team.
Nonetheless, the numbers are very encouraging as the Royals already have their sights set on the 2027 season, as their contention window for the postseason closed not too long ago. As Perez’s numbers have also gradually declined, the Royals have no room for concern in terms of their catcher of the future.
Jensen has furthered that notion in September, as if it weren’t already certain.
After dealing with some struggles in August as he posted a .165 batting average in 25 games, Jensen has taken yet another big step forward in September. This month, Jensen is hitting .317 with a whopping 1.180 OPS in 16 games so far. His slugging percentage has also continued to skyrocket, as it did even further when he became the Royals’ rookie single-season home run king.
