Kansas City Royals focused on pitching with Asa Lacy selection

By Leigh Oleszczak | Jun 11, 2020

HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 22: The game ball is left on the mound prior to Game One of the 2019 World Series between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals at Minute Maid Park on October 22, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Royals could have a rotation for the ages after taking Asa Lacy fourth overall in the 2020 MLB Draft.

It’ll be a few years before the Kansas City Royals are vying for the postseason, but if all goes according to plan and their young pitching prospects all pan out, man oh man it could be a dominant group we’re looking at.

Obviously the newest name to the farm system is Asa Lacy, who was the Royals’ fourth overall pick in Wednesday night’s draft. He had a 0.75 ERA in four starts with Texas A&M in the shortened 2020 college baseball season. He went up against some of the best players in all of college baseball and held his own against those guys.

The Royals didn’t select a pitcher with their first round pick in 2019, but the year prior they took five college pitchers with their first five picks and as of last season, it looked like all five of those pitchers could do great things in Kansas City.

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That group is obviously headlined by Florida standout Brady Singer, who was promoted to Double-A Northwest Arkansas last season and looked like he could be on his way to making his MLB debut in 2020. Unfortunately the shortened season could prevent him from finding his way onto the Kauffman Stadium diamond this year.

Even if that’s the case, Singer had a shot at the rotation heading into the 2020 season initially and that shows he’s progressing nicely in the Royals’ farm system. Jackson Kowar – Singer’s teammate at Florida – also looked sharp in the minors last year and it’d be cool if both of these guys got to pitch in the Royals’ rotation for years to come.

The Royals also took Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic, and Jonathan Bowlan in the 2018 MLB Draft and all three looked good in 2019. Bubic joined Singer in the Future’s Game last summer and has really made a name for himself over the last year. All five of those pitchers taken in the 2018 draft are considered top ten prospects for the Royals.

Obviously teams need more than just pitching to make it to the postseason, but if these players all end up panning out AND the Royals still have Brad Keller at their disposal as well, it could be really tough for opposing teams to score runs against this team.

Lacy is the newest addition, but fans probably shouldn’t expect to see him in the big leagues until 2022. Singer and Kowar are going to be the first two to likely make it to the majors and once they do, that’ll be the start of this pitching wave for Royals fans.

The only fun part about the Royals being bad is that it allows them to get high draft picks and then get to watch those players work their way through the minor leagues together. When the Royals made their World Series runs in 2014 and 2015, a lot of the high draft picks were position players, but this time around, it very well could be pitchers.

This is going to be fun to keep an eye on!

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