The Royals (good) catching prospect problem

The Royals are loaded with catching prospects and this is a good thing

For a couple of years, the Kansas City Royals farm system has been trying to rebuild itself from the graduations of many top prospects, including Bobby Witt, Jr., Michael Massey, Vinnie Pasquantino, and many others. Today, they are slowly getting back there with the addition of many top prospects like Jac Caglianone. Their real prospect strength lies at catcher. In our recent top 15 Royals prospect list, three out of the top five prospects are all catchers (Blake Mitchell, Ramon Ramirez, and Carter Jensen). This is definitely not a bad problem to have.

Such a strong catching core has led to many questions for the Royals front office and fans alike. Who likely gets traded? Who will replace Salvador Perez in the future? What sets the three of these catchers apart from one another? In this article, we will dive more in-depth into the strengths and weaknesses of each option and the potential future role that all three could play in the Royals organization.

Blake Mitchell

Highest Level: High-A

Acquired: 2023 MLB Draft, 1st Round (8th Overall)

Stats: 111G - .232/.368/.424, 92 H, 16 2B, 3 3B, 18 HR, 51 RBI, 80 BB, 149 SO, 25 SB

Advanced Stats: 16.5 BB%, 30.7 K%, .192 ISO, .319 BABIP, 135 wRC+

Out of the three catching prospects, it’s obvious that Mitchell has the highest ceiling and most upside. Prep catchers are usually considered extremely risky that high, but Mitchell has looked like he is worth it so far. It’s a beautiful and polished left-handed swing in the batter's box. It’s a loose operation and he generates a ton of bat speed. He couples that with a really good approach at the plate and feel for the strike zone. That offsets his main red flag which is swing and miss. He struck out nearly 31% of the time but his near 17% walk rate helped him temper some of those concerns. He will need to work on bringing that number down, but there aren’t a ton of concerns at the plate outside of that. Even with the strikeout concerns, he doesn’t chase a to out of the zone.

Mitchell has some room to grow and oozes athleticism which plays well for him behind the plate. He does an incredible job framing behind the plate and is able to steal strikes for his guys on the bump. He pairs that ability with a plus-plus arm behind the plate. The biggest area for improvement is getting him the ability to be quicker out of the crouch and shorter arm action to throw guys out as you’d like to see his caught stealing numbers a bit higher. These are all areas that Mitchell could improve on. He has more than enough talent to be an everyday catcher, regardless of the fact that it comes with some risk.

He’s likely the one out of the three the Royals would like to see replace Salvador Perez as the long-term backstop of the future. If the Royals were going to trade one of the three catchers for a big-league piece, it’s hard to see Mitchell as the one they’d want to part with given the immense upside and their vision of him as a key piece to their future. He’s a couple of years away from making his big league debut and likely starts the year in High-A next year given he only had a small sample size there last year.

Carter Jensen

Highest Level: Double-A

Acquired: 2021 MLB Draft, 3rd Round (78th Overall)

Stats: 125G - .259/.359/.450, 119 H, 22 2B, 6 3B, 18 HR, 67 RBI, 72 BB, 120 SO, 17 SB

Advanced Stats: 13.2 BB%, 23.4 K%, .191 ISO, .313 BABIP, 129 wRC+

Man, Jensen really did take his game to the next step in 2024. He found ways to address many of the concerns to his game last year. There were arguments that Ramon Ramirez should be ranked above him, but Jensen really solidified himself as the second-best catching prospect in the system. He’s jumped up to a top five prospect in the entire system for us. Jensen found a way to tap into more of his power and still maintain his solid feel for the strike zone, walking at an 18.5% rate in High-A. That dipped a bit more once he was called up to Double-A. The power is where Jensen really improved. As noted in our Top 15 rankings, he featured an average exit velocity of 92 MPH and really tapped into his pullside power. The biggest red flag was his struggles against lefties which causes some platoon concerns for the future.

Defensively, Jensen is a lot like Mitchell behind the plate. He’s a good athlete and has a decent arm to go along with that. He did make a lot of improvements receiving the ball and framing pitches. He also saw some significant improvements in his ability to block behind the plate which gives you some confidence that he can stick there long-term. Jensen was able to sneak some steals on the basepaths, but he doesn’t have blazing speed.

He has the makings of a future big-league catcher who could hit 15-20 home runs. If the Royals were going to trade one of the three catching prospects anc didn’t want to move Mitchell, Jensen probably has the most value. There were some talks that the Royals were engaged with the Miami Marlins for Jazz Chisholm and Carter Jensen was the key prospect involved in those trade talks. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was moved sometime in the near future. Even if he’s not, he’s a solid and exciting prospect for the Royals.

Ramon Ramirez

Highest Level: Arizona Complex League

Acquired: 2023 International Signee ($60,000)

Stats: 49G - .265/.379/.459, 45 H, 10 2B, 1 3B, 7 HR, 33 RBI, 26 BB, 42 SO, 1 SB

Advanced Stats: 12.8 BB%, 20.7 K%, .194 ISO, .311 BABIP, 115 wRC+

Out of the three catchers, Ramirez probably possesses the most to dream on and has me the most excited on what he could possibly become. He’s young and still pretty inexperienced which presents some risk, but at the plate, he has some impressive raw power and has already some crazy exit velo numbers up for his age. The power doesn’t just exist in BP either as he’s able to tap into it with ease in games. That upside at the plate is rare for a catcher. Defensively, Ramirez is new to the position but has looked pretty decent back there thus far. He has plus arm strength natural for the position, but he still has some length with his arm actions leading to not-so-great pop times. He’s still working on his receiving abilities and his framing, but he has made some improvements over the last couple of years.

Ramirez is likely the rawest in terms of the three catching prospects and probably has the highest risk to be moved off position, but the upside at the plate is immense. The bat is what the Royals and Royals fans should be excited about. He was originally an outfielder so there is a chance he could move back there. In terms of a trade, it seems like he could be the less likely of the three to be traded just because opposing teams might not value him as much as the Royals do and Ramirez isn’t often listed at the top of the list in terms of prospects except for a few places (Just Baseball has him in their top 100 overall prospects). Regardless, he’s a lot of a fun and it is easy to see why we have him among the top three prospects in the Royals system.

The Royals have lots of options behind the dish for the future and it is never an issue to have this much depth. It is hard to find big-league catchers. All three possess tons of talent in various ways and have lots of upside as prospects. It’s a good problem for the Royals to have. It gives them plenty of options for when Salvador Perez might retire and allows them the depth to possibly trade one if they want to get a big-league-ready piece. It’ll be interesting to see how the Royals handle the three in the near future.