Kansas City Royals: Jackson Kowar wows in Double-A debut
The Kansas City Royals might have found themselves a gem in Jackson Kowar, who was recently promoted to Double-A Northwest Arkansas and looked great in his debut.
A lot of eyes are going to be on the Kansas City Royals‘ first round selections from the 2018 MLB Draft because they spent all of those picks on college pitchers. One of those picks was Jackson Kowar out of Florida, who the Royals took with their second pick in 2018.
Royals fans were fortunate to watch Kowar pitch for Florida in the College World Series last year, so that was pretty cool. He pitched well in his first year, but he’s absolutely dominating in year two.
As I mentioned in the intro, the former Gator was promoted to Northwest Arkansas this past week and on Saturday, he made his first start for the Naturals, which went incredibly well.
Kowar is probably done after 7 IP in his AA debut.
— Royals Farm Report (@RoyalsFarm) June 23, 2019
6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, 95 pitches, 61 strikes, 8 ground outs. That’ll play.
Kowar was outstanding, throwing seven scoreless innings while surrendering six hits, striking out seven, and walking just two batters. He threw 95 pitches in his Double-A debut.
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Before getting promoted, Kowar was wheeling and dealing in Wilmington, twirling a 3.53 ERA in 74 innings pitched. He now joins his college teammate and Royals first pick in last year’s draft – Brady Singer – in Northwest Arkansas. The two could end up being huge contributors to the Royals rotation when the team is ready to start contending again.
With the way Kowar is performing this year, it wouldn’t be crazy if the Royals gave him a call-up in September of this year. The only true argument to that would be not to start the service time clock ticking on him, especially if they’re not going to be contending for another few years.
The Royals have focused on drafting college players in the last two drafts and last year saw them take five college pitchers with their first five selections. All five of those guys have done well in the minors, but Kowar has been the one to keep an eye on as far as getting some time in the major leagues this year.
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More than likely, Kowar won’t see a major league mound until next year, but he’s sure proving himself in only his second year in the Kansas City Royals organization. It’d be pretty cool if he and Singer could be the one and two guys in the rotation when it’s time to start winning the big games and right now – Kowar panning out doesn’t seem to be a crazy scenario.