Kansas City Royals: Every top five draft pick in Royals history

OAKLAND, CA - SEPTEMBER 7: Yamaico Navarro #24, Alcides Escobar #2, Brayan Pena #27, Eric Hosmer #35 and Mike Moustakas #8 of the Kansas City Royals joke around in the dugout prior to the game against the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on September 7, 2011 in Oakland, California. The Athletics defeated the Royals 7-0. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Royals have held a top-five overall pick in the MLB Draft 14 times. Who have they taken with those selections and how did those players pan out?

This article was initially published in June 2019 and was updated in February 2021.

While the Kansas City Royals have had some really bad years, they’ve only held a top-five pick in the MLB Draft 14 times over their storied history. This is an article looking back at those top five picks and looking at how those players did as professional baseball players.

Let’s start with the first top-five pick the Royals had, which came in 1971.

ROYALS TOP FIVE PICKS IN MLB DRAFT

1971 – ROY BRANCH (FIFTH OVERALL)

After just their second season as an MLB franchise, the Royals held the fifth overall pick in the 1971 MLB Draft. They opted to go with in-state pitcher Roy Branch out of Beaumont High School in St. Louis.

Branch never pitched for the Royals and spent just one year in the majors. He appeared in just two games for the Seattle Mariners, posting a 7.94 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, and was 0-1 as a starter. He threw 11.1 innings in his MLB career and that was it for Roy Branch as a pro ballplayer.

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