Kansas City Royals: Every First Round Pick Since 2000
![After signing with the Kansas City Royals, number one draft pick Ashe Russell meets with manager Ned Yost #3 of the Kansas City Royals (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) After signing with the Kansas City Royals, number one draft pick Ashe Russell meets with manager Ned Yost #3 of the Kansas City Royals (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/7ca1943625c9cb84af6801ea082e8c967c9332b22cda604a5d4e298c2463a4ad.jpg)
Every Royals first-round draft pick since 2000: Foster Griffin (2014)
With their other first-round pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, the KC Royals selected Foster Griffin out of The First Academy in Orlando.
After struggling during his first three years in the minors, Foster’s 2017 campaign looked promising for sure. Griffin spent time in Northwest Arkansas and Wilmington, posting a 3.61 ERA with the Naturals in his 18 games. He had an ERA over five during his stint with Northwest Arkansas in 2018, appearing in 28 total games.
Griffin finally got an opportunity to pitch in the big leagues in 2020 and was injured after just one outing. He had thrown 1.2 scoreless innings and looked tremendous, but was placed on the injured list shortly after. Oh, and all of that happened on his birthday, which made it even more unfortunate.
There was a lot to like about Griffin’s performance that day and it’d be awesome to see him really flourish in the Royals’ bullpen moving forward.