Kansas City Royals: Every First Round Pick Since 2000

Every Royals first-round draft pick since 2000: Sean Manaea (2013)

With their second selection in round one of the 2013 MLB Draft, the Royals chose Sean Manaea in hopes of turning him into a solid starter for their rotation. Instead, Manaea played a pivotal role for the Royals, but it wasn’t by anything he did on the mound for them.

In the summer of 2015, the trade deadline was underway and the Royals needed a bat for their lineup. For the most part, the lineup was delivering, but the problem was that Omar Infante wasn’t doing his share at the plate. He was easily the weakest batter.

The Royals soon started chatting with the Oakland Athletics about acquiring Ben Zobrist. The A’s wanted Manaea, and why wouldn’t they? Manaea had an average ERA of 2.66 with four different minor league teams and appeared to be ready for a call-up at any time. KC was able to hold onto him in the Johnny Cueto trade, but they weren’t going to be so lucky the second time around.

Manaea went to Oakland and had a nice rookie season for the A’s in 2016 with a 7-9 record, 3.86 ERA, and 1.189 WHIP. He shone again in 2017 and was on his way to an incredible 2018 season before getting hurt and missing the second half of the year, including Oakland’s lone playoff game. He was lights out through five starts in 2019 and then regressed again in 2020.

While it’s a bummer that the Royals didn’t experience any success with Sean Manaea, he got them Ben Zobrist, who really helped propel the team to their first World Series title in 30 years. Manaea will probably continue to be a great pitcher and Royals fans will have to try to hide their sadness in seeing him succeed.

Wasn’t the World Series title worth it though?