choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>. <\/p>\nRoyals’ new catcher likely an organizational depth piece![\"Royals\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/01kehs06bpbwj60ga370.jpg\" "\\"Royals\\"")
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Aug 13, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals second baseman Tyler Tolbert (2) loses his helmet as he steals third base during the eighth inning against the Washington Nationals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Marrero, who was an eighth-round pick for the Boston Red Sox in 2018, has 312 games worth of minor-league experience to his name. More than half of those games have come at the Double-A level, but he’s reached Triple-A briefly in each of the last two years.<\/p>\n
Marrero elected free agency at the end of 2024 and signed a minor-league deal with the Texas Rangers. After riding the bench for most of the season in the Rangers organization (he only got into 20 games between Double-A and Triple-A), it’s no surprise Marrero wanted a change of scenery. <\/p>\n
To this point, Marrero sports a career .691 OPS in the minors, including a .672 OPS in 184 Double-A games. Unless he makes big strides with the bat in a short window, he probably won’t have much of a chance to make it to the majors in Kansas City.<\/p>\n
The Royals have Salvador Perez, the team captain, as the aging veteran starter behind the plate. Rookie Carter Jensen, who burst onto the scene as a top prospect this past season, then shined in his brief September debut.<\/p>\n
In all likelihood, the signings of Alfaro and Marrero are good news for Jensen making the major league roster out of spring training. Mitchell won’t likely debut in Triple-A until later this year, so the Royals will need catchers to help log innings at that level in the meantime.<\/p>\n
More MLB: Royals Commit Unforced Errors With Kris Bubic, Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Royals are suddenly beginning to stockpile minor-league catching talent in anticipation of needing some depth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,936,2123,55,2596,2595,4,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-513988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-royals","12":"tag-kansascity","13":"tag-kansascityroyals","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115873108013867317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}