KC Royals Farm Futures: 3 prospects land in Pipeline Top 100

The latest mlb.com Pipeline prospect rankings are good news for the KC Royals and 3 players.

While prospect rankings aren’t necessarily indicative of future performance, it’s always good to see KC Royals prospects included in such lists by baseball experts. Three Royals are among the top 30 in MLB Pipeline’s latest Top 100 rankings, a feat topped only by the 2011 rankings since they’ve been made available by mlb.com.

All three KC players included in the latest version were also on the list for 2020. Bobby Witt Jr. nudges up one spot from No. 7, Asa Lacy falls four places to No. 30, and making a huge leap of 25 spots to No. 29 is Daniel Lynch.

Without any 2020 minor league games upon which to judge individual prospect performance, most of the movement would be dependent on how players did in spring training and summer camp, at the team’s alternative training site, and in fall league and camp play. Currently, Lynch is the only Royal Pipeline projects to make the majors in 2021—he was reported to be close last year—but Witt and Lacy have enough talent that they could force the issue this summer as well.

There seems to be little doubt that these three players will have an opportunity to be major parts of a successful decade in Kansas City. Of course, and as we’ve seen in the past, some of the prospects are ultimately shipped out to make immediate major league roster improvements.

How does this KC Royals prospect crop compare to others?

The only prior group that would beat this one is 2011’s, when Wil Myers (No. 15), Jake Odorizzi (No. 16), and Mike Montgomery (No. 20) were ranked highly. All three have had success in the major leagues, although only Montgomery has appeared in more than two games for the Royals.

The high watermark for the number of players on Pipeline’s Top 100 goes to the 2014 squad. It featured six prospects in the Top 100—Adalberto Mondesi, Kyle Zimmer, Sean Manaea, Hunter Dozier, Miguel Almonte, and Brandon Finnegan.

MLB Pipeline projections are always fun to review before spring training and then use to track the players to see how they progress. It’s even better when three of the Top 30 are KC Royals.