The Royals Will Soon Need to Find Their Next Great Catcher
With Salvador Perez nearing free agency and a handful of top catching prospects nearing the majors, the Royals have some decisions to make behind the plate.
The thought of a Kansas City Royals team without Salvador Pérez is a jarring one, but it may soon be a reality. Having signed with the organization as a 16-year-old in 2006 before making his MLB debut in 2011, Pérez is going into his 14th season in a Royals uniform, and it’s impossible to deny his status as a fan favorite star on the roster.
Still, the 2025 season is the final guaranteed year of his four-year, $82 million contract extension, and even though they’re largely expected to pick up the deal’s $13.5 million club option for 2026, the Royals will soon have a major catching problem to face.
Between current backup catcher Freddy Fermin, top prospects Carter Jensen and Blake Mitchell, and up-and-comer Ramon Ramirez, Kansas City is staring down a catching logjam.
Scouts project Jensen and Mitchell to make their major league debuts in 2026 and 2027, respectively, while Ramirez won’t be far behind them in 2028. This means that if the Royals exercise Pérez’s club option for 2026, they’ll have him, Fermin, and Jensen fighting for playing time. Even in the unlikely scenario that Pérez catastrophically bombs this season and his club option is declined, Kansas City will have two starting caliber catchers — Jensen and Mitchell — in 2027, with Fermin still in the mix, and Ramirez soon to join the party.
So, should the Royals decline Pérez’s club option for 2026 in the interest of prioritizing future stars? Or is it time to consider trading away one of the team’s top prospects, capitalizing on major-league potential while avoiding a future battle for playing time at catcher? Where will Fermin land in all of this?
The Royals have a lot of potentially franchise-altering decisions to make, and this season is exactly when they need to make them. As hard as it may be to imagine, it’s time for the team to figure out what the post-Pérez era in Kansas City will look like — and when it will start.
Salvador Pérez’s Role in 2026
Considering the legacy that Pérez has already established in Kansas City, a decision to decline his club option for the 2026 season may very well start a riot at Kauffman Stadium.
Since debuting in the majors in 2011, the 34-year-old has won five Gold Glove Awards, five Silver Slugger Awards, AL Comeback Player of the Year (2020), and was named as the Royals’ captain before the 2023 season, becoming only the fourth player in franchise history to receive the honor. He’s been selected to nine AL All-Star teams, two All-MLB First Teams, and one All-MLB Second Team, and won World Series MVP after playing a crucial role in the Royals’ victory in 2015.
Pérez’s legacy has extended off the field, as well. In 2024, he became the first player in Royals history to win the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award, recognizing his extensive humanitarian work both in his native country of Venezuela and locally in Kansas City.
Even putting aside the Royals’ history with Pérez — because let’s face it, expecting loyalty from an MLB team is rarely an intelligent move — it just wouldn’t be particularly logical for Kansas City to part ways with him sooner than they have to. The backstop has bizarrely managed to get better with age, and after posting a .271/.330/.456 line with 27 home runs and 104 RBI in 652 plate appearances last season, he’d have to really fall apart in 2025 for his bat to no longer be worth keeping in the lineup.
So, assuming the Royals exercise the option to keep Pérez for another season, what will his role be in 2026?
Kansas City has been reducing Pérez’s catching workload over the last few years — he started just 90 games behind the plate in each of the 2023 and 2024 seasons — and instead giving him more time at first base and designated hitter to limit wear and tear. Going into 2025, Pérez is likely to catch fewer games again, and by his age-36 season in 2026, it’s entirely possible he will have transitioned to being a full-time DH.
Pérez’s value used to be in his defense, and with perfect timing for his final years in MLB, it’s now in his bat. While he will likely still catch the occasion inning, Pérez’s transition to a less labor-intensive role will work well with Jensen’s expected debut in the majors, allowing the Royals’ captain to continue adding value to the roster while welcoming in the next generation of stars.
The Royals Need Freddy Fermin — For Now
A finalist for the 2024 AL Gold Glove Award, Fermin is as good a backup catcher as any in the league. Despite a significant drop in his offensive power last year — his 33.9% hard-hit rate put him in just the 18th percentile — he was reliable enough to still put up decent numbers, ending the season with a .271 batting average in 368 plate appearances. More than anything, Fermin’s value comes from the fact that he offers strong coverage behind the plate, allowing Pérez to move on from his days as a workhorse.
No, Fermin isn’t the game-changing catcher that Kansas City will soon need to take over primary duties, but the Royals need him — at least for now. As Pérez’s workload behind the plate goes down, Fermin is a strong enough backstop to trust with the extra innings, functioning as a stop gap until Jensen and Mitchell are ready to come up to the majors.
In 2025, the Royals will continue to utilize Fermin as their backup catcher, but next winter — or possibly even as soon as the trade deadline — the team will need to reassess. When Jensen is ready for the majors, his development will take preference, and Fermin’s role will depend on whether or not Pérez is still catching enough innings to be backup. The most likely scenario is that Pérez will move to a full-time DH/1B role by the time Jensen is promoted, and Fermin will stay in the secondary role as the youngster surpasses him for the primary role.
However, if Pérez is still putting in enough innings behind the plate when Jensen joins The Show, Fermin could very well find himself on the trade block. Largely viewed as a solid backup option rather than a top catcher, it’s hard to estimate what sort of trade return Fermin would garner for the Royals, especially since he’ll be turning 30 this season.
For now, Fermin’s role is not only safe, but crucial to the Royals’ success. Whether that’s still the case in another season or two remains to be seen.
Who Will Be the Royals’ Next Superstar Catcher?
It seems to be widely accepted that Mitchell — currently Just Baseball’s No. 2 Royals prospect behind only slugger Jac Caglianone — will be Kansas City’s catcher of the future, but while he isn’t expected to debut in the majors until 2027, Jensen will likely get there in 2026. By the time they could both be on the Royals’ active roster, Pérez is highly unlikely to still be catching, and Fermin will either have been traded away to prioritize Jensen, or still floating around as a backup option. Still, Mitchell and Jensen are both starting-caliber catchers, and they can’t both start.
So where does that leave the Royals?
Trading away Fermin is unlikely to get much of a return for the Royals, and it won’t really fix the issue of having two star backstops about to debut in the majors. As hard as it will be to part ways with a future superstar, the smartest option for Kansas City is to put one of Mitchell or Jensen on the trade block, and sell high on their potential.
If the Royals trade away Jensen, they risk having a gap in 2026, especially if Pérez’s workload has decreased (Fermin can’t catch all 162 games while they wait for Mitchell to arrive in 2027). Should the Royals want to avoid having to acquire a rental player to tide them over, trading away Mitchell makes the most sense, but it certainly wouldn’t be a popular move. Even though the 20-year-old has only reached High-A, scouts believe he has a higher ceiling and more upside than Jensen, hence Mitchell’s ranking as the Royals’ No. 2 prospect while Jensen is No. 3.
Still, trading away Mitchell would allow the Royals to have continuity in their catching plans without having to add a player. Pérez and Fermin will cover 2025, Jensen and Fermin will catch in 2026 and 2027, and by the time 2028 comes around, Ramirez — currently our No. 4 prospect in the Royals’ system — will be ready to move into the majors and Fermin will likely be at the end of his career.
Having said all that, the chances of Kansas City parting ways with Mitchell are slim, and even if it means having to acquire a short-term rental player to catch a few innings in 2026 — or having to rely on 34-year-old Luke Maile — the team is far more likely to move Jensen.
Jensen really stepped up his game in 2024, tapping into more power and finishing the season with a .259/.359/.450 line in 546 plate appearances across High-A and Double-A. If the Royals move him now, there’s no question they’ll be able to demand a decent trade package in return, though it would mean counting on Pérez and Fermin to hold down the fort until 2027 when Mitchell debuts, finding a rental, or hoping Maile can help out.
Going into Pérez’s last guaranteed year in Kansas City, the Royals have a lot of big decisions to make. Jensen and Mitchell are set to be superstars, but both can’t start, and the team is just a season away from a logjam. As hard as it is to imagine a Royals team without Pérez, it’s time for Kansas City to look to the future — and that means definitively selecting their next great catcher.
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