Will Royals' No. 3 Prospect Take Over For Salvador Perez By 2026 Season?

Positional depth is almost always an advantage in Major League Baseball, but sometimes it comes with difficult decisions.

The Kansas City Royals, who don't have the deepest overall lineup in the game, have one of the sport's best catchers in Salvador Perez and one of the best backups in Freddy Fermin. And that hardly begins to describe the complicated catching picture over the next few seasons.

The Royals' number-two prospect, per MLB Pipeline, is catcher Blake Mitchell. Their number-three prospect is catcher Carter Jensen. And their number-10 prospect is catcher Ramon Ramirez. Soon enough, those prospects will be angling for big-league playing time.

Jensen, who reached Double-A last season, has the earliest ETA of any of the three, but the consensus is that Mitchell is the slightly better prospect. Plus, Perez has a club option for 2026 ($13.5 million) that Kansas City will almost certainly pick up.

With all of those moving parts, Just Baseball's Rachael Millanta predicted on Friday how the situation was most likely to unfold: Jensen taking over as the primary starter for Perez at some point during the 2026 season.

"In 2025, the Royals will continue to utilize Fermin as their backup catcher, but next winter — or possibly even as soon as the trade deadline — the team will need to reassess," Millanta wrote. "When Jensen is ready for the majors, his development will take preference, and Fermin’s role will depend on whether or not Pérez is still catching enough innings to be backup.

"The most likely scenario is that Pérez will move to a full-time DH/1B role by the time Jensen is promoted, and Fermin will stay in the secondary role as the youngster surpasses him for the primary role."

Further complicating matters: Mitchell is generally considered the better defensive catcher between him and Jensen. The Royals could attempt to shift one to a corner outfield position, though that experiment backfired on them with MJ Melendez.

And because baseball works in mysterious ways, Ramirez could wind up becoming the best catcher of the bunch five years down the road.

The real story here is that Perez is on his way out, at least as a full-time catcher. The Royals would love to keep him around as their captain and slugger as long as possible, but the youngsters will do the organization a huge favor if they prove themselves ready for starting duty in the near future.

More MLB: Royals Ascending Superstar Named Favorite For 2025 AL MVP Award Over Aaron Judge