Kansas City Royals: New Season Prospect Watch, Josh Staumont

As the 21st ranked prospect in the Kansas City Royals farm system, Josh Staumont is our next installment of the new season prospect watch series.

Falling in the 21st spot on MLB Pipeline’s list of top prospects in the Kansas City Royals organization is right handed pitcher, Josh Staumont. Staumont was drafted by the Royals in the second round of the 2015 MLB Draft. He spent the entirety of 2018 with the Omaha Storm Chasers.

Throughout 2018, he appeared in 41 games. Contrary to his role in previous seasons, he started just five of those games. Staumont totaled 74.1 innings of work, where he tallied an ERA of 3.51 and a WHIP of 1.49.

On his career, he has started 60 of the 114 games he has played in. Most of those starts came between 2016-2017. He has a total ERA of 4.35 as a minor leaguer and a WHIP of 1.59.

The reason why he is sort of starting to drift away from the starting role is due to the high walk rate he incurred. Though he struck out lots of batters, his walk rate kept climbing.

MLB Pipeline grades Staumont as a 40 overall player. That matches his changeup grade as well as his control. His strongest pitch is his fastball, at a plus-plus grade of 70. He also boasts an above average curveball, grading out at 60. They do say, though, that his fastball has the ability to be an 80 grade pitch when he pitches in shorter stints. He just has to work on the control aspect.

According to MLB Pipeline, Josh Staumont is predicted to hit the majors in 2019. The bullpen was not great in 2018, which may be an understatement, but there will be opportunities for him to find himself on the Kansas City Royals relief staff at some point in time during 2019.

It is unclear whether he will work his way back into a starting role. It seems as if the Royals are thinking he will fare well in the bullpen as opposed to from the starting position, but only time will tell.