KANSAS CITY – The Royals switched their lineup around about an hour before their game against the Twins on Thursday, scratching catcher Carter Jensen and instead having Salvador Perez catch. Perez was scheduled to be the designated hitter following a marathon slog of a game Wednesday night.
The reason for the scratch wasn’t an injury to Jensen – that much was obvious as he caught warmup pitches early in the game and later came in to catch in the ninth inning.
Jensen – the Royals’ top prospect – overslept, and he didn’t make it to the Kauffman Stadium field with enough time to get prepped for the game, especially a game in which he was catching.
“Carter had an oversight,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Overslept. Wasn’t here on time, and we made the decision to scratch him from the lineup. … He’s a stand-up guy, a really hard worker, a great kid. He feels terrible. He’s accountable to it. It’s not something that has been a pattern or any of that kind of stuff. Nobody feels worse than he does, and I think he’ll admit to that. And we’ll move on.”
Indeed, Jensen owned up to the mistake following the 5-1 loss to the Twins, ready to speak at his locker when reporters entered the clubhouse.
“No running from it,” Jensen said. “Just didn’t wake up to my alarm. Slept through it. Don’t really have an excuse, nor should I. It sucks. Happens. I felt like I let my teammates down, coaches down. Just learn from it and know it won’t happen again.”
Jensen said he woke up in “full panic” and tried to get to the field as soon as possible. He knew at that point that he wouldn’t be starting. The Royals had to turn to Perez to prep with starter Cole Ragans.
Once the Royals were able to finally get in touch with Jensen and know that he was on his way to the field, the situation turned into a learning moment for the 22-year-old rookie.
"You got a 36-year-old catcher preparing to DH today and then his world gets a little rocked an hour and a half before the game that he’s not going to be DH-ing," Pasquantino said. "Credit to Salvy today for being ready, first and foremost. We're glad Carter’s OK, right? That was kind of the initial thought when you're trying to get a hold of his parents and everything like that. But once you find out he’s OK, it’s like, ‘All right, it’s a growing moment.’
"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, same way anybody would have to. It can’t happen. And hopefully it doesn’t happen again. But it’s one of those things where you just can’t afford to make mistakes like that in this game. Got to move forward the best that he can. I know he feels really bad. I know that it was not his favorite drive to the field this morning, but it wasn’t our favorite, either, trying to figure out what was going on. He’ll learn from it. Grow up a little bit. We’re here for him, though. It’s not like anybody’s mad at him. Things happen. But you got to learn from mistakes like that. And maybe get another alarm clock or something.”
It certainly isn’t the first time an alarm has been slept through, but Jensen now knows to set more than a few alarms the next time he has to get up early for a day game.
“There’s a lot to learn from it. Making sure if I don’t set one alarm, maybe set three, four, as many as possible,” Jensen said. “Moving forward, that’s what I’m going to do. Set a million alarms. Make sure I’m up. It stinks, though.”