MLB Draft 2021: 3 straight days of KC Royals surprises

Two KC Royals, Salvador Perez and Whit Merrifield, played in the All-Star Game Tuesday night. Perez put on a show of power in the Home Run Derby the evening before.

But if those baseball moments didn’t give Kansas City fans at least a brief respite from this dismal season, the Royals’ efforts to land talent in the 2021 amateur draft probably did. From Sunday evening until mid-afternoon Tuesday, the club dished up three days of major and minor surprises.

The Royals rattled the baseball world with a shocking first round pick Sunday, continued surprising Monday with the type of players they selected, then reversed field Tuesday.

When all was said and done, what did Kansas City do?

Day 1: The KC Royals shake up the 2021 draft with their first selection.

Even casual followers of this year’s overstock of mock drafts knew who Kansas City’s first round pick would be. All Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker, whose name appeared next to “Kansas City” in almost every reputable projection, had to do to become a Royal was sit back and wait for KC to choose him.

And he was available when the time came, undrafted by the first six clubs to pick and destined for Kansas City. But the Royals had another plan, one even a pitcher as fine as Rocker couldn’t change. Some people will say they went rogue.

The club spent its enviably high seventh-overall pick on Frank Mozzicato, a barely-18 lanky lefthander just out of high school who’d manage to avoid a lot of radar. The selection sent fans and baseball media scrambling for the Internet to find out just who Mozzicato might be.

They discovered an excellent pitcher who may eventually vindicate the Royals, a team not known for much recent success with high school hurlers. He threw four straight no-hitters this season, went 9-0 with an 0.16 ERA, and averaged just under 22 strikeouts per nine innings. He has a mesmerizing curveball, an improving fastball which should increase in velocity as he matures, and a changeup.

And Mozzicato already has a new fan:

Few knew who Frank Mozzicato was before Sunday night. Whether his becomes a household name remains to be seen.

Day 3: The KC Royals reversed course and focused on college players Tuesday.

Kansas City proved in Days 1 and 2 that it wasn’t afraid to spend draft picks on high school players. And lest anyone doubted KC’s willingness to take risks on prepsters, they grabbed one with their very first Day 3 selection.

The Royals took a shortstop, Brennon McNair from Magee (Mississippi) High. McNair’s 2021 numbers suggest he has a good bat: he hit .527 with 11 home runs and 43 RBIs in 35 games.

But with McNair the Royals’ high school selections ended, a bit of a surprise considering they spent almost half of their Round 1 and 2 picks on prep players. Kansas City’s final nine choices were all collegians.

Not surprising, though, was that six of those nine turned out to be pitchers, giving the club 12 hurlers in 21 picks. The best of the bunch may be righthander Anthony Simonelli, the Royals’ 16th pick who was 5-2 with a 3.91 ERA at Virginia Tech this season. A fastball, cutter, changeup and knuckle-curve give him an eclectic assortment of pitches.

Hurlers Caden Monke (Round 14) and Tyson Guerrero (Round 12) also bear watching. Monke, a lefthanded reliever, was 5-1, 3.71 in 27 games with Arkansas; southpaw Guerrero started 11 times for Washington and went 3-3 with a 2.96 ERA.

Then there’s righty Patrick Halligan (Round 13), who averaged over 12 strikeouts per nine innings and went 7-3 with a 1.87 ERA in 13 starts for Pensacola State College in Florida. Halligan, though, was also 4-7, 5.51 in two seasons at George Mason before he transferred to PSC; time will tell how much the difference in competition accounts for the statistical disparity.

Dallas Baptist outfielder River Town (Round 15), North Carolina State catcher Luca Tresh (Round 17), TCU pitcher Harrison Beethe (Round 18), Texas shortstop Cam Williams (Round 19), and Tulane pitcher Jack Aldrich completed Kansas City’s Day 3 picks.

Kings of Kauffman will have more on the KC Royals’ draft picks in the coming days.

The 2021 draft is over and the Royals have 21 potential new players. August 1 is their deadline to sign, so how many will join the organization remains to be seen.