diff --git a/pkg/sql/stats/stats_cache.go b/pkg/sql/stats/stats_cache.go
index 37f81290d473..9411ad15f221 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/stats/stats_cache.go
+++ b/pkg/sql/stats/stats_cache.go
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/sql/types"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/util/cache"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/util/encoding"
+	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/util/errorutil"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/util/hlc"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/util/log"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/util/protoutil"
@@ -214,10 +215,23 @@ func decodeTableStatisticsKV(
 // The statistics are ordered by their CreatedAt time (newest-to-oldest).
 func (sc *TableStatisticsCache) GetTableStats(
 	ctx context.Context, table catalog.TableDescriptor,
-) ([]*TableStatistic, error) {
+) (stats []*TableStatistic, err error) {
 	if !statsUsageAllowed(table, sc.settings) {
 		return nil, nil
 	}
+	defer func() {
+		if r := recover(); r != nil {
+			// In the event of a "safe" panic, we only want to log the error and
+			// continue executing the query without stats for this table.
+			if ok, e := errorutil.ShouldCatch(r); ok {
+				err = e
+			} else {
+				// Other panic objects can't be considered "safe" and thus are
+				// propagated as crashes that terminate the session.
+				panic(r)
+			}
+		}
+	}()
 	forecast := forecastAllowed(table, sc.settings)
 	return sc.getTableStatsFromCache(ctx, table.GetID(), &forecast)
 }