Kansas City Royals: Players Missed in the MLB Draft
George Springer. 4. player. 135. Royals had the fifth overall pick; Springer selected 11th overall. Outfielder. Houston Astros
Other players the Royals missed out on in 2011: Jose Fernandez, Sonny Gray, and Joe Panik
KC Royals fans don’t really care for the Houston Astros, but the team could have had current Astros outfielder George Springer in the 2011 MLB Draft. Instead, however, the team decided to go with Bubba Starling. Six selections later, Springer was off the board.
The Astros get to watch Springer become a great young player while the Royals are still waiting for Starling to even make it to AAA. Yikes.
The 2011 draft is one of the worst recent drafts for the team, as their first rounder from that year STILL hasn’t made it to the major leagues.
All four guys taken before him are in the majors now and proving themselves, and Starling is still struggling in Omaha, the Triple-A team in the Royals organization.
George Springer, on the other hand, has looked to be quite the young stud in the majors so far. He joined the Astros in 2014 and has a career slash line of .262/.355/.471 through mid June of 2017.
The Astros get to watch Springer become a great young player while the Royals are still waiting for Starling to even make it to AAA. Yikes.
While Starling was extremely young when the Royals drafted him and had hometown roots, this pick will sting until the kid makes it to the majors and proves himself… And that isn’t even necessarily a sure thing at this point.
Next: Ouch, man