The relatively new MLB draft lottery left the Royals out of the top five picks last year and it's done so once again.
Kansas City will pick No. 6 in the 2024 draft despite finishing with the second-most losses in baseball, a gut punch made worse by the fact that two division rivals will pick ahead of the Royals, including the Guardians at No. 1 overall.
See the order and reactions below.
MLB Draft Lottery: Royals Get No. 6 Pick
The 2024 MLB Draft order is set.
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) December 5, 2023
The Guardians land the No. 1 pick pic.twitter.com/Yp4PG63eGf
Cleveland had just the ninth-best odds to get the top pick, while the Royals were tied with the best odds. Kansas City is looking to accelerate a rebuild to improve the chances of signing Bobby Witt Jr. long-term, so it's an unfortunate turn of luck.
That being said, the Royals will still get a strong opportunity to add an impact player. MLB's sixth-ranked prospect is Charlie Condon, a first baseman and outfielder who hit .386 with 25 home runs this season.
He'd fit in nicely with the core as a power bat, though obviously there are other options as well.
#Royals GM J.J. Picollo on the Draft Lottery and falling to 6th: "A lot of frustration. It’s two years in a row that we dropped slots. It’s pretty significant. The slots are one thing, the availability of a certain player, but there are also the finances attached to it."
— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) December 6, 2023
It's brutal to lose out on a top pick, especially to a division rival with a promising core like the Guardians. J.J. Picollo needs to make a quality pick here and I expect players like Vance Honeycutt from North Carolina and Tommy White out of LSU to be considerations as well.
Should the Royals prefer a pitcher, Chase Burns and Brody Brecht are likely options. We'll see what direction Picollo chooses to go, but the likelihood of landing a top player suffered with this draft lottery news.
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