Catcher Leadoff Home Run Record Falls to Carter Jensen
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Catchers get buried at the bottom of the order because the squat costs them, but Kansas City‘s rookie Catcher Carter Jensen bats first. Thursday he set the leadoff home run record.
Traditionally, catchers don’t bat leadoff, and the reason is the squat. A catcher is down and up for three hours a night. Foul tips find the mask, the forearm, the thigh. So managers protect him by batting him seventh, or eighth, or ninth, where tired legs cost the lineup the least.
Carter Jensen bats leadoff for the Kansas City Royals. The leadoff spot is special because it earns the most at-bats. Once anyone reaches base, the leadoff man is the hitter who comes back up in the ninth. Thursday Aug 27th the 23 year old catcher set the leadoff home run record for all MLB catchers.
Carter Jensen caught at Park Hill High, in Kansas City where he grew up. In 2021 the Royals drafted him in the third round. Last season, Carter hit .300 across 20 games after his debut on September 2nd of 2025. He made the Opening Day roster this spring and has been Kansas City’s primary catcher throughout the 2026 season.
Then on Thursday August 27th, at Rogers Centre in Toronto, he stepped in against Blue Jays starter Spencer Arrighetti and opened the game by passing Paul Lo Duca’s 2001 record. He drove the first pitch he liked 421 feet. MLB’s game notes said so that night, and the Associated Press carried it on the wire.
This summer, Jensen put his fifth leadoff HR of the season into the record books. Then he spends the next three hours doing the work that usually keeps a catcher hitting ninth. In mid-August Jensen ranked tenth in the majors in shadow-strike percentage, at 48.9 percent. Shadow Strikes are the share of borderline pitches he turns into called strikes. They’re the pitches an umpire could call either way. He steals those strikes for his pitchers on the same legs that carry him to the plate first every night.
During the game, Kansas City buried Toronto, 13-2, behind five hits and six RBIs from Jac Caglianone. Jensen finished 1-for-2 with three walks and two runs scored.
Jensen also holds a 20-game hitting streak in June, the longest in the 2026 season. Still, all that glitters is not gold, Carter is batting .223 across 126 games, with 19 home runs and 61 runs batted in. He is a rookie learning the hardest job in the sport at the highest level it is played.
Young catchers learn early to think of themselves as defenders first and hitters somewhere near the bottom of the list. The gear teaches it. So does the lineup card.
But Jensen’s lineup card says something else. His name sits at the top of it, so the record belongs to him now.
Ask your coach how you can improve at hitting if your goal is to lead off. Then practice.
Try this at your next practice
- Fresh legs, tired legs. Take five swings at the start of practice, then five more at the very end, after everything else is done. Have someone film both. A catcher’s swing in the ninth inning is the one that decides where he hits in the order, and most players have never seen their own.
- Ninth-inning legs. Add two sets of wall sits or split squats at the end of practice, after you are already tired. The point is not stronger legs for the squat. The point is a swing in the ninth inning that looks like your swing in the first.
Sources: Jensen (leadoff HR), Caglianone (6 RBIs) fuel huge night for KC’s offense (MLB.com) · Royals 13-2 Blue Jays (Aug 27, 2026) game recap (ESPN) · Caglianone goes 5 for 6 with HR, 6 RBIs to power the Royals past the Blue Jays 13-2 (AP via ABC News) · Carter Jensen player page and 2026 stats (ESPN) · Most leadoff home runs in a season by a catcher (StatMuse)