Kansas City Royals have top ten farm system after 2020 trade deadline
The Kansas City Royals having a top ten farm system is a good sign considering they’re rebuilding.
According to Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report, the Kansas City Royals have the ninth best farm system in Major League Baseball.
Reuter says,
"Brady Singer (7 GS, 1-3, 5.19 ERA) and Kris Bubic (6 GS, 0-4, 5.46 ERA) are taking their lumps in the majors, but that experience could serve them well in the future when the Royals are ready to make a push toward contention once again.Teenage outfielder Erick Pena was compared to “a young Carlos Beltran” after signing for $3.9 million last July, and his pro debut will be among the most anticipated of 2021. This is a pitching-heavy system behind Bobby Witt Jr., so his development will be closely monitored."
This has been a season filled with MLB debuts for the Royals. Reuter mentioned that Singer and Bubic are both getting hit hard in the majors, but neither guy has lacked confidence during this time. Like Reuter said, their time spent with the team right now is only going to help them when the Royals are playing in bigger games down the road.
The top ten prospects listed on Bleacher Report’s list are:
- Bobby Witt Jr.
- Asa Lacy
- Daniel Lynch
- Brady Singer
- Jackson Kowar
- Erick Pena
- Kris Bubic
- Kyle Isbel
- Nick Loftin
- Khalil Lee
Out of this bunch, it’s a split between batters and pitchers with Witt, Pena, Isbel, Lofting, and Lee as the position players and the rest are pitchers. We’re well-aware of how good the Royals pitching is in their farm system and at some point, they might need to use that as trade leverage in order to get some bats to help them.
This season hasn’t been a great one for Kansas City, but there have been some positives, especially with the prospects who have made their debuts this season or the other young prospects.
It was a little baffling that the Royals didn’t trade more players at the deadline (namely Greg Holland, who is only under club control this season), but they obviously still thought they had a chance to contend in this shortened season.
Kansas City will need to use this upcoming offseason to add bats for their upcoming run and in order to do so, they might have to send Whit Merrifield or Jorge Soler (or both) to other teams and ask for several prospects in return. The reason the 2014/2015 runs happened was because the Royals traded their best player in Zack Greinke and received Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar in return.
For now, however, the Royals farm system is in good shape moving forward and that’s the most important thing for a rebuilding organization.