Kansas City Royals: Every First Round Pick Since 2000

Let’s take a look back at every Kansas City Royals first-round pick since the turn of the century.

This article was originally published in June 2017 but was updated in March 2021. 

While the MLB Draft doesn’t garner a lot of attention from non-baseball nerds, it’s still very important for an organization. If a baseball team doesn’t hit on their first-round pick, it can really hurt them down the stretch. If, on the other hand, a team does succeed with their first-rounders, it can really help push the team ahead.

The Kansas City Royals are a perfect example of this.

With how bad they were throughout most of the 2000s, the Royals always found themselves drafting near the beginning of the first round each year. This led them to land top players like Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Moustakas in four different drafts. Those four players had a hand in getting the Royals to the World Series and three of them played a big part in locking down a championship.

Before that, however, a lot of their picks did next to nothing and the Royals suffered as a result.

Since the new millennium began, the KC Royals have been hit and miss with their draft picks. Some, like the ones mentioned above, turned out to be franchise players. Others have faded away and were forgotten about in just a few years.

So, let’s take a look back at every single first-round draft pick made by the Kansas City Royals since 2000.