Royals News: 2020 MLB Draft class provides hope for future
Royals news involves the 2020 MLB Draft and how those new prospects should help the Kansas City Royals contend in the foreseeable future.
Being a small market organization, the Kansas City Royals really have to bank on the draft. They don’t have the money to shell out to big time free agents, so hitting on their early round picks is key for a team like the Royals.
The MLB Draft is much different from the NFL Draft in that it isn’t as big of an event and those players don’t see playing time right away. Even the first round picks sometimes don’t make it to the big leagues for several years, especially if they’re high school prospects. It’s also normally a lot longer, but this year was shortened to five rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortunately, the Royals had a pretty nice draft and it was kicked off by an absolute dream scenario in the first round. Left-handed pitcher Asa Lacy fell to the Royals at pick number four and they didn’t hesitate to scoop him up with that selection.
Here was how the rest of the Royals’ 2020 draft panned out:
- Round 1, Pick 32 – Nick Loftin, SS (Baylor)
- Round 2, Pick 41 – Ben Hernandez, RHP (De La Salle Institute (IL))
- Round 3, Pick 76 – Tyler Gentry, OF (Alabama)
- Round 4, Pick 105 – Christian Chamberlain, LHP (Oregon State)
- Round 5, Pick 135 – Will Klein, RHP (Eastern Illinois)
Here’s what’s trending in Royals news from around FanSided
- Royals focused on pitching with Asa Lacy selection [KC Kingdom]
- Imagining how a 2022 pitching staff would look [Shawn Bauman, Kings of Kauffman]
- Ben Hernandez is young, high-ceiling pitcher [Cody Rickman, KC Kingdom]
- Tyler Gentry is power hitting corner outfielder [Cody Rickman, KC Kingdom]
- Christian Chamberlain is strikeout artist team needs [Cody Rickman, KC Kingdom]
- Will Klein is another flame throwing reliever [Cody Rickman, KC Kingdom]
Check out what’s trending in Royals news from around the rest of the web
- Reactions to day one of the draft for the Royals [Max Rieper, Royals Review]
- Royals 2020 MLB Draft tracker [Katherine Acquavella, CBS Sports]
Cody Rickman of KC Kingdom did wonderful write-ups for each of the Royals’ Day 2 draft picks that are must reads for those of you wanting to learn more about these prospects.
The Royals took just one high school player, which was the selection of Hernandez in the second round. High school players are definitely riskier to take because it takes them longer to make their way through the minor leagues, but sometimes it’s the right route.
This year, the best prospects were collegiate players and the Royals got arguably the best pitcher in the draft in the form of Lacy. If he pans out, the Royals could potentially have one of the most lethal rotations in all of Major League Baseball.
This year’s draft is different than most, as normally the Royals have many more drafts to work with, but these six players might very well become big names in the Kansas City farm system with Lacy obviously being the highlight of that group.
The Kansas City Royals are still a few years away from contending, but these players will hopefully be a part of that next wave of talent that helps get the boys in blue back to the postseason.