This Royals trade deadline move cleared a path to the majors for this top prospect

The dust has settled on a hectic 2025 MLB trade deadline, and now comes the time evaluate how the Kansas City Royals' roster looks for the rest if the season.

While the focus will primarily be on the names that were brought in, as this team has now positioned themselves for a postseason push, there's one particular outgoing name that could have some interesting ramifications on the Royals roster this season.

This of course is Freddy Fermin, who was traded to the San Diego Padres on Thursday in exchange for a pair of right-handed pitchers in Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek.

Fermin was the backup catcher to Salvador Perez before being traded and while J.J. Picollo said Thursday that Luke Maile will be assuming the backup role now, as per Anne Rogers of MLB.com, it's hard not to think that this deal might have cleared the path for a potential 2025 MLB debut for blue-chip Top 100 prospect Carter Jensen.

Carter Jensen's path to the majors is a clear as ever after Freddy Fermin trade

While Fermin had his upsides on offense with a decent average, low strikeout and a knack for timely hitting, he was a 30-year-old backup with a below average bat overall. Despite his contractual control through 2029, there didn't seem to be much future for him in Kansas City.

And now that it's Maile in the backup role, the only thing standing in the way of Jensen and shot in the majors is a 34-year-old catcher who's spent a large portion of 2025 in the minors.

While Picollo is not wrong to role with Maile as Perez's backup for the time being, the 2025 Futures Game participant in Jensen is playing well enough that even at the tender age of 22 might be poised for a late season call-up.

He's been great since making the jump to Omaha, slashing .253/.347/.590 with eight homers, 22 RBI a 12.6% walk rate and a 137 wRC+ in his first 22 games.

While the likelihood of him joining the big league squad tomorrow is unrealistic, as he still has parts of his game to iron out, such as a K-rate north of 35%.

While there's no rush to get him up to the majors, now that the Royals aren't rocking with three catchers on the 26-man roster, they may feel comfortable with Jensen being the next man up if needed.

And if that's the case, it could indicate that he's turned heads enough so far in Triple-A to have the team thinking that his major league moment could be coming sooner rather than later.