Kansas City Royals: 2020 MLB Mock Draft 2.0
By Cody Rickman
Kansas City Royals Mock Draft 2.0
Round 4, pick 105: Freddy Zamora, Shortstop
Freddy Zamora is a 21-year-old, 6’1”, 190 pound, right-handed hitting shortstop out of University of Miami. Zamora was a glove-first type prospect before he started to show improvement with his high contact plate approach. Zamora missed all of the 2020 season with a knee injury suffered before the season began.
- 2018 (NCAA): .303/.388/.412, with 17 extra base hits, 24 BBs (18 Ks), 20/24 SBs in 211 ABs
- 2019 (NCAA): .296/.393/.447, with 18 extra base hits, 31 BBs (27 Ks), 13/16 SBs in 199 ABs
According to the Draft Prospect Rankings at mlb.com, Zamora has the following future tool grades:
- Overall: 45
- Hit: 50
- Power: 40
- Speed: 50
- Arm: 60
- Fielding: 55
According to the scouting report on Zamora at mlb.com;
"“At his best, Zamora has the skill set to be an everyday player at a premium position. He can be a plus defender at times, with a lot of body control, range and wing span at his disposal to go along with an easily plus arm. He’s made strides at the plate to make him a more well-rounded player. He’s very short to the ball with a contact-oriented approach that makes him tough to strike out, and he started showing more extra-base pop during his sophomore year, though he tailed off at the end of the year."
On the field, Zamora is a borderline plus defender at shortstop. He has above-average fielding with good range, body control, and a strong arm. At the plate, Zamora has the potential to be a .260 hitter with good plate discipline and the ability to be a pesky at-bat each time up.
Zamora has the potential for more power, a modest projection puts him between 7-10 homeruns per year. If Zamora recovers fully from his knee injury he has slightly above-average baserunning ability and could steal 10-15 bags per year.
Zamora is one of the better defensive prospects available in the draft and presents to be a high floor type prospect. His short compact swing should allow him to be an annoyance for opposing pitchers, driving up pitch counts.
If Zamora dedicates himself to his craft, he could become one of the better defenders in the MLB. He slips to the Royals in the 4th round because of his 2020 knee injury and make-up concerns. There was a chance if Zamora avoided injury and the 2020 NCAA occurred without cancellation, he would have made himself into a 1st round talent.