KC Royals draft grades aren’t as high as expected

A compilation of three websites that graded the MLB draft only place the KC Royals in fourth place in the American League Central.

Many felt that Asa Lacy falling to the KC Royals with the fourth pick was a huge steal.  The reaction to their compensation round pick of Nick Loftin was mixed, but many feel he is a pure baseball player with the ability to be a super-utility man.

On the second day, pitching was still the name of the game as the team gobbled up more hurlers and many of them have a high ceiling.  The feeling from many reactions by experts and fans was that the Royals had an excellent draft and injected more optimism into the near future, especially how the pitching staff may look by 2022.

One potential problem for Kansas City is that a review of websites that graded each team’s draft efforts showed the Royals may only have had the fourth-best performance against division rivals.  For a team that just barely finished above the Detroit Tigers in the race for cellar-dweller, this is not good news.

Overall, Detroit scored A-minus or above from all three sites and Chicago White Sox were close behind receiving As on two of three.  Cleveland ranked just above Kansas City and Minnesota was overwhelming at the bottom of the pile with two Cs and a B-minus.

Prospectslive.com scored the Indians and Tigers higher and tied Kansas City with Chicago for the third-best draft.  They had this to say about Kansas City:

"Their final three picks were underwhelming in a possibly positionless slugger in Tyler Gentry and a pair of arms that profile best as relievers. Christian Chamberlin, their fourth rounder showed the ability to miss bats at Oregon State, but he’s an undersized lefty that sits low-90s as a starter. Klein is a two pitch guy from a smaller school with some zip on his fastball and a power curveball to play off it. –prospectslive.com"

The team at bleacherreport.com ended up rating the Tiger’s draft with a perfect A-plus.  Despite a B grade, the Royals finished fourth in their rankings just barely above the B-minus given to the Twins.  Detroit’s praise was not just because the grabbed who many experts saw as the best player in the draft but a couple of others who many had hoped the Royals would select with their comp pick when they were still available:

"With the No. 38 pick, Detroit added more pop to its draft haul in the form of Ohio State catcher Dillon Dingler.The 21-year-old mashed five of his 12 college home runs in 13 games during the shortened 2020 season and was on track to record career bests in most offensive categories.In the competitive balance part of the second round, the Tigers landed a solid left-handed bat in LSU’s Daniel Cabrera, who had 22 home runs, 116 RBI and a .910 OPS over three seasons. –bleacherreport.com"

Lastly, cbssports.com gave the Royals their best grade with an A. Of course that only tied them with the Tigers and White Sox for AL Central grades.  Here is what impressed their site about Kansas City’s selections:

"Asa Lacy, the top pitcher in the draft class, slipped out of the top three and into the Royals’ lap with the No. 4 pick. That’s a huge win. Kansas City then added maybe the best true shortstop in the draft class in Nick Loftin in Competitive Balance Round B, and second rounder Ben Hernandez might have the best changeup among high school pitchers in the draft class. –cbssports.com"

It will be a few years before we will know for sure who won this year’s draft amongst the Royals and their division foes.  The initial belief is that it will be a tough fight to get to the top of the standings with almost every team improving their roster significantly.