Catching logjam could lead Royals to trade market sooner than expected

The Kansas City Royals are entering the 2025 campaign with high hopes as they look to reach the postseason in back-to-back years. They've already done a solid job of upgrading their roster, but there's still more work to be done.

One position they're not going to need an ounce of help at is catcher. For over a decade now, the Royals have been spoiled with Salvador Perez as their primary backstop. In ways that cannot be properly explained, he's gotten better with age and is now one of the top offensive catchers in the game.

There's also Freddy Fermin, who's about as solid of a backup as any in the league. The 29-year-old hit .281 in 2023 and .271 this past season and will likely hit around 10 home runs a year for as long as he's a consistent backup in Kansas City. This production is not franchise-altering, but it's more than enough from a backup and he's also an elite defensive catcher.

With Perez nearing the end of his career and Fermin comfortably a backup and nothing more, the Royals are going to be seeing a changing of the guard behind the plate in the near future. The trouble is, they've got two top prospects rapidly coming up through the minors that play the same position.

Two top catching prospects may force the Royals to the trade market

Blake Mitchell and Carter Jensen are two of the top prospects in the Royals' system and they're both catchers. MLB Pipeline has Mitchell at No. 2 in the system while Jensen is No. 5. Similarly, FanGraphs' latest rankings has Mitchell in the top spot and Jensen coming in third.

Mitchell, 20, was the Royals' first-round selection in the 2023 MLB Draft and just wrapped up an outstanding first season as a professional. He recorded 18 home runs and 51 RBI while going 26-for-33 in stolen base attempts and posting a .793 OPS. As of right now, he's likely not going to be big league-ready until 2026.

On the other hand, Jensen feels close. The 21-year-old also hit 18 home runs in 2024, driving in 67 while going 17-for-20 in stolen base attempts and posting a cool .809 OPS. There's an outside chance that he makes a big league cameo at the tail end of the coming season.

Both of these backstops have strong gap and raw power that will have them get more and more valuable as they develop. They've also got speed and defensive chops that will make them both long-term catchers through and through. This is both a good and a bad thing. It's great to have them both producing, but it's not going to be an easy call to make one a starter and one nothing more than a backup.

It seems that right now the best choice would be for Jensen to replace Perez as the team's starting catcher come 2026. The former should be ready for that gig by then, and Perez could always be brought back as a first baseman/designated hitter/backup catcher hybrid. Mitchell will be ready shortly after, though, which could lead to some tough decisions.

At the moment, both Mitchell and Jensen have practically the exact same value. Each of them would net a huge return in trade talks, so it's worth wondering if now may be the time to make a move since the organization is right on the cusp of their latest window of contention. With a 2025 postseason spot being dangled in front of them, moving on from one of these prospects to shore up the roster elsewhere sounds like the move.

The sky is the limit when talking about trade returns, too. We're talking about two of the best catching prospects in all of baseball. With such a massive shortage of quality catchers around the league, there'd be a long list of teams calling JJ Piccolo to see what it'd take to pry one of these youngsters from Kansas City.