Kansas City Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Major League Baseball this morning announced Royals catcher Carter Jensen has been named American League Player of the Month and American League Rookie of the Month for September.
Jensen, 23, is the first catcher in Royals history to earn American League Player of the Month honors, which was established in 1974. This marks the second straight month a Royal has won the award, following Jac Caglianone in August. This is the second time Royals have won Player of the Month in consecutive months, following Hal McRae and George Brett in May and June 1982, respectively.
Jensen is the fifth Royal (7th instance) to earn American League Rookie of the Month honors (established in 2001) and the first since Eric Hosmer in September 2011.
In 21 September games, Jensen slashed .338/.407/.787 (27-for-80) with 10 doubles, 8 home runs and 20 RBI. He led Major League Baseball this month in doubles, extra-base hits (19), slugging percentage and OPS (1.194). Jensen’s 63 total bases led the American League and were 8 more than the next-closest player. His 8 HR tied for 2nd most in the American League and his 20 RBI fell 2 shy of league leaders Pete Alonso and teammate Vinnie Pasquantino (22 each).
Jensen reached safely in 19 of 21 games in September and hit safely in 17 of 21 games. He recorded his 2nd career multi-HR game on Sept. 2 vs. Miami and added his 3rd last Friday night vs. Cleveland, a game in which he set a career high with 5 RBI.
Carter started 20 of the Royals 24 games at catcher in September. That included a run of five straight days from Sept. 1-5, during which the game time temperature was 97°F, 98°F, 97°F, 97°F and 97°F. He won American League Player of the Week for that stretch, during which he slashed .421/.476/1.158 (8-for-19) and led the American League in slugging percentage, OPS (1.634), extra-base hits (7) and total bases (22), while ranking 2nd in batting average and tied for 2nd in home runs (3).
He had a streak this month in which 12 straight hits went for extra bases, which set a new franchise record, passed Aaron Judge (2017) for the longest streak by a rookie in the Expansion Era (since 1961) and passed Sean Murphy (2023) and Dustin Garneau (2021) for the longest such streak by a catcher in the Expansion Era, according to Elias.
On Sept. 19 in Pittsburgh, Jensen hit his 25th HR of the season, breaking a tie with Bob Hamelin (1994) for the Royals rookie record. He finished the 2026 season with 35 doubles (3rd most in the American League) and led the Royals in XBH (64), HR (27) and RBI (81) and finished 2nd on the team in walks (65).
Jensen’s 64 extra-base hits were the most by a rookie catcher since 1947, breaking a record previously held by Mike Piazza (61 XBH) since 1993.
Among Major League rookies this season, Jensen ranked 1st in doubles and extra-base hits, 3rd in RBI and 4th in home runs and walks.
Only nine other rookies since 1947 have matched Jensen’s totals in extra-base hits (64) and walks (65) in a single season, and each of the previous nine won Rookie of the Year: Dick Allen (1964), Alvin Davis (1984), Mark McGwire (1987), Tim Salmon (1993), Albert Pujols (2001), Eric Hinske (2002), Mike Trout (2012), Judge (2017) and Alonso (2019).
Jensen is the 12th player (14th occurrence) to win both the Player of the Month and Rookie of the Month Awards in the same calendar month, joining Daylen Lile (September 2025), Nick Kurtz (July 2025), Wyatt Langford (September 2024), Aristides Aquino (August 2019), Judge (June and September 2017), Gary Sánchez (August 2016), José Abreu (April and July 2014), Yasiel Puig (June 2013), Trout (July 2012), Buster Posey (July 2010) and Ryan Braun (July 2007). Among that group, Kurtz, Judge, Sánchez, Abreu, Trout, Posey and Braun were each named Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year for their respective league.