Carter Jensen keeps racking up the honors for incredible rookie season

Carter Jensen's rookie season exceeded expectations. The 23-year-old catcher had a solid debut in 2025, but no one thought he would perform the way he did in 2026. The preseason projection models, which tend to stay conservative, were pretty far off the damage he did at the plate this season.

Jensen was incredible in his rookie year, and his red-hot end to the season earned him both the American League Rookie of the Month and American League Player of the Month honors. For the entire season, he hit .239 with a .790 OPS and 116 WRC+. He smashed 27 home runs and 35 doubles, and added 80 RBI. The Kansas City native's rookie season has not been overlooked by the national media, and he added one more honor on October 6.

While not an official award, MLB Pipeline released its All-Rookie teams for 2026, and Jensen was named the First Team All-Rookie catcher. They wrote that he "immediately showed he was one of the better all-around catchers in the game," and that he "made great strides on defense, where he showed off above-average framing skills and pop times." The Marlins' backstop Joe Mack was named to the second team.

Carter Jensen's rookie season was much better than what the projection systems predicted

MLB Pipeline has been naming its All-Rookie teams since the 2020 season. Jensen has joined some elite company on the list of First Team catchers. Other players to receive that honor include Sean Murphy (A's, 2020), Adley Rutschman (Orioles, 2022), and Drake Baldwin (Braves, 2025).

Not many people expected this out of Jensen. Even though he started the season as MLB Pipeline's 18th-ranked prospect, a season of this caliber didn't seem in the cards. His preseason ZiPS projections — 18 home runs, 45 extra-base hits, .730 OPS, 101 WRC+ — were all way off. The only thing the ZiPS projections were close on was his 3.4 fWAR (he had 3.7).

Jensen has quickly thrown his name in the ring to be one of the best catchers in baseball, and he had one of the best seasons ever for a Royals rookie. There should be more awards coming his way this offseason, too.

Jensen has set himself a high bar after his rookie season. Multiple award recognitions in his first full year in the bigs are a great feat. Royals fans can only hope that this is just the starting point for what looks to be an awesome career.

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