Vinnie Pasquantino perfectly sums up Royals drama with Carter Jensen

The momentum the Kansas City Royals built over the past three games came to a screeching halt on Thursday afternoon after missing out on the series sweep of the Minnesota Twins.

The offense looked like a shell of it’s previous night’s self, stronger perceived relief pieces added to the team’s current bullpen turmoil and to make matters worse, they received an unnecessary distraction before the game even began.

The Royals initially announced a pretty status quo looking lineup that included rookie catcher Carter Jensen in the five-hole and occupying game calling duties behind the dish.

Then, just hours later, an updated roster was posted with Jensen omitted from it. With no clear reason initially released as to why he was removed last minute, many started to fear the worst.

However, after coming on as a defensive replacement in the ninth, it was revealed as the game wrapped up that the reasoning behind his benching was nothing to worry about and more something to be embarrassed about. Jensen simply overslept.

As per Anne Rogers of MLB.com, Jensen was remorseful of his actions, seemingly understanding the gravity of his mistake.

“Felt like I let teammates down, coaches down, Jensen said. “Just learn from it and know it won’t happen again.”

As for his teammates, one of the more vocal clubhouse leaders in Kansas City, Vinnie Pasquantino, weighed in on the situation, showing support for his teammate, but not blowing over the fact Jensen made mistake and let the team down.

Because of his actions, as small as sleeping in may seem in the grand scheme of things, the Royals were forced to call upon veteran Salvador Perez to hop behind the dish on last minute’s notice.

“You got a 36-year-old catcher who’s preparing to DH, then his world gets a little rocked and that an hour-and-a-half before the game he’s not going to be DH’ing,” Pasquantino said.

Pasquantino made sure to let everyone know that the team’s glad he’s okay and that there’s no bad blood between them and Jensen.

However, like a tough loving father, that element of disappointment was certainly there.

“It’s a growing moment,” he said. “He’s really young. There are some things that cannot happen and that’s one of them.”

“He’s going to have to wear it on the chin the same way anybody would have to,” Pasquantino said. “It can’t happen.”

Carter Jensen’s oversleeping mishap is the latest hiccup in slow start to season

A distraction like this was the last thing Jensen or anybody needed to start the year, as the top prospect hasn’t exactly exploded onto the scene this season.

Through 18 plate appearances across five games, Jensen was slashing .125/.167/.313 with a 29 wRC+, as his only real offensive impact came with his solo shot in the Braves series.

Not only did Jensen’s rhythm get shot, it appears that it could’ve had an impact on Thursday”s contest as well.

In his place after a bit of shuffling, the Royals inserted the struggling Lane Thomas into the lineup. Thomas would go 0-for-4 in the eight hole. Even despite Jensen’s shortcomings, the Royals likely wanted him in the lineup to potentially get hot as opposed to rolling with Thomas against a righty.

While there were certainly other reasons as to why the Royals came up short in this contest, it doesn’t look good on the young Jensen that they came up so short in the immediate wake of his mistake.

The hope now is surely that everyone can move on and grow from this for the sake of both Jensen getting right at the plate and the Royals getting back in the win column.