Could Royals’ promising youngster follow Bobby Witt Jr’s World Baseball Classic lead?

With only the World Series left to play in 2025, the focus of the baseball world will soon be fixated on preparing for the 2026 season.

But after the impending offseason settles and before Opening Day gets underway next year, the global baseball scene will come together for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

The Royals already stand to be well represented in next March’s festivities with Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino and Seth Lugo already confirming their roles for their respective nations, and more names are surely still set to come.

There are certainly some obvious Royals names that should be expected to get the call, whether it be the All-Star Venezuelan duo of Maikel Garcia and Salvador Perez or the MLB saves leader in Carlos Estévez suiting up for the Dominican Republic, but could KC’s top prospect Carter Jensen unconventionally find his way onto Team USA’s roster in the coming months, similar to how Witt Jr. turned some heads three years ago?

Could Carter Jensen follow in Bobby Witt Jr.’s World Baseball Classic footsteps?

When U.S. manager Mark DeRosa named at the the time a former blue chip prospect fresh off his rookie season to the nation’s 2023 WBC squad, it was a bit of head turner.

Witt was coming a debut campaign that didn’t initially live up to the immense prospect potential he held before getting the call to The Show. He slashed just .254/.294/.428 with an impressive 20 HR and 80 RBI but a below average 98 wRC+.

He was a fairly undisciplined hitter that was being carried by his pop and speed, while also being one of the league’s worst defenders at the time. But DeRosa obviously saw the need to build the future of the program, and he certainly looked right in doing so in hind sight.

While Witt was sparingly used in 2023’s tournament – registering just a pair of plate appearances in five games – but boy did he ever grow into the superstar many anticipated. This made it easy for DeRosa to make him one of the first selections for his 2026 team.

This time around, the Royals find themselves with one of the hottest young talents in town yet again, after Carter Jensen had an outstanding opening month in the majors in September.

MLB Pipeline’s No. 39 overall prospect and No. 2 overall catching prospect, didn’t look overwhelmed in the slightest, slashing .300/.391/.550 with three homers, 13 RBI, a 13.0% walk rate, a 17.4% strikeout rate and a 159 wRC+ in his first 20 games.

It may only be a small sample size, but to put things into further context, of catchers with at least 60+ plate appearances this season, only a presumptive AL MVP finalist Cal Raleigh had a higher wRC+ or OPS than Jensen and no catcher had a better AVG. He also happened to finish in the top five in walk rate and top 15 in K-rate.

Now, Jensen isn’t a shoo-in by any means as there are plenty of options that DeRosa has at his disposal to fill out his backstop needs. Veterans like Cal Raleigh, Will Smith and Shea Langeliers are coming off excellent seasons. And Jensen isn’t the only young American standout behind the dish, as names like Drake Baldwin, Hunter Goodman and Dillon Dingler all have three or less years of MLB experience, are all 26 or under and all happen to be coming off great 2025 seasons themselves.

The point here isn’t to definitively decide whether or not Jensen should get the nod to be one of Team USA’s catchers this WBC, it’s to present the fact that he’s got an impressive resume already and that it shouldn’t be an utter shock if America’s skipper decides to take another chance on a young Royals standout.