Carter Jensen's arrival should take pressure off Jac Caglianone heading into 2026

The Kansas City Royals have been in search of offensive firepower for virtually the entire season. It is not hyperbole to say the Royals were offensively challenged in 2025. They ranked towards the bottom of a majority of meaningful offensive categories for seemingly most of the season.

If not for a god-awful month of June, where the Royals went 9-18 and averaged a league-worst 3.3 runs per game, we could have been looking at a team heading to the postseason. That is out of the question now, and the Guardians are now living a reality that could have belonged to the Royals.

That is frustrating.

Jac Caglianone, the Royals' former No. 1-ranked prospect, is at the top of the list of reasons why the Royals could not live up to the organization's expectations. Caglianone made his MLB debut in early June but never could find a groove long enough to be someone the team could depend on for production.

At a time when the Royals desperately needed someone to take pressure off Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, Maikel Garcia and Salvador Perez, the Royals bet on Cags, and it backfired.

That dark cloud of disappointment was sure to haunt the front office and the fan base for the rest of the season and the offseason.

No Royals player faces more pressure to produce in 2026 than Jac Caglianone. However, the emergence of fellow top prospect Carter Jensen as a quality player in the lineup might help Jac take the next step in his development.

Carter Jensen's early success redirects spotlight away from Jac Caglianone's struggles

Jensen has turned heads with the rapid translation of his game to the Major League level. Once he got that first knock out of the way in his third game, things clicked shortly after.

He enjoyed a six-game hitting streak thereafter and finished the season with a .300 average and a 154 wRC+. Jensen made eight starts at catcher for the Royals and has shown himself to be a key fixture for this team for 2026.

Not only was he a force at the plate, he was a factor behind it as well, throwing out two out of four base stealers.

The sample size is extremely limited for Jensen, but in his short stay in the Majors, there are reasons to believe he is for real.

It’s more than just looking the part; the numbers and advanced data back up what you see on the field.

His strikeout rate (17.4%) is lower than Bobby Witt Jr’s. His barrel percentage (20.8%) would be comparable to that of Cal “The Big Dumper” Raleigh and Kyle Schwarber, and his average exit velocity (95.4) would be better than some guy named Shohei Ohtani.

We're talking about a premier player. Jensen showed he can drive the ball with authority and create damage with his stick.

What Jensen has done is inject hope and optimism into the minds of Royals fans, giving them reason to believe that 2025 was not a lost season. At the same time, he'll help heal the scar tissue from Caglianone's shortcomings.

Jac Caglianone was the prized prospect the organization drooled over. The red carpet was laid out for his debut, but the production never lived up to the hype.

In the same amount of at-bats as Jensen, Cags was a much different hitter. Caglianone did not handle the strike zone nearly as confidently as Jensen, with his strikeout rate at 19.1% and his walk rate at 4.4%.

His 61 wRC+ pales in comparison to what Jensen was able to produce. If not for Jensen, Cags’ offensive struggles would be the topic of discussion all off-season.

2025 proved Royals are close; not yet World Series ready

Finishing with an 82-80 record is not quite the year KC had hoped for coming into the season, but it’s not far off expectations either.

I saw the Royals as a 90-win team if they played their cards right. DraftKings had the Royals win total at 83.5 wins.

Of course, like in life, those plans didn’t materialize like we imagined. The Royals could never separate from the pack.

What they found in 2025 was another building block to help them win a championship. Jensen handled himself like a pro, and that will serve him well as he enters 2026, where he will be thrust into an everyday role.

The same can be said for Caglianone, but time will tell if the Royals still believe in him like they did early in the year.

He was an everyday player when he first arrived in June. In his second stint with the team, they were more careful with his playing time. You could see the frustration mounting on Cags' face, and his body language was completely off.

Even though he said all the right things in front of the camera, he carried himself like he had the weight of an organization on his back. That won't be the case for him in 2025, and with a fellow teammate like Jensen by his side (they played together in Triple-A this season), Cags will be able to approach Spring Training with a sense of familiarity that he wasn't afforded in 2024.

Nevertheless, Jensen's arrival has taken some heat off Cags’ back. With a year of plate appearances under his belt, young Jac should settle in much smoothly in his sophomore campaign.