KC Royals Get Terrible 2024 MLB Draft Lottery News
By Joe Summers
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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