4 hot prospects the Royals definitely shouldn't trade this offseason

Missing the major league playoffs after entering the 2025 season with a promising roster will force Kansas City Royals general manager J.J. Picollo to embark once again on a winter quest to improve a club that finished with its second straight winning season, but whose unfortunate early September swoon — the Royals lost eight of their first 12 games before going 8-5 the rest of the way — dashed KC's hopes of making a deep postseason run.

Expect the architect of last offseason's successful roster retooling to leave no stone unturned in his search for help.

But how much money principal owner John Sherman is willing to spend on free agents, and how much big league talent the Royals may sacrifice to improve themselves, remains to be seen. And teams with whom Picollo talks trade will try to pry some of its better minor league prospects away from the organization.

Fortunately, the club has several hot prospects (not including Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen, who made it to the majors this season) it could part with; at the same time, Picollo should keep several off the market.

Here are just four of those "untouchables".

Reliever A.J. Causey could be close to a job with the Royals

Causey has only one season of professional experience — after the Royals picked him in the fifth round of last year's amateur draft, he didn't officially debut until this spring. But the righthander quickly made up for lost time.

Causey began this season at High-A Quad Cities where he went 8-2 with a 1.56 ERA and five saves in 27 relief appearances. Striking out 44 and walking only 11in 40.1 innings didn't hurt, and the strength of his performance propelled him to an early July promotion to Double-A Northwest Arkansas. That he then went 3-3 with a 1.91 ERA and four saves in 21games proves the bump to the Naturals didn't faze him, and suggests he's ready for Triple-A.

And his cumulative 2025 numbers — a 1.72 ERA, his 11-5 48-appearance record, his 9.20 K/9 and 2.21 BB/9, and the fact only two of the 17 runners he inherited managed to score, reinforce the prediction we made previously in this space that Causey could be Kansas City's reliever of the future. That makes him a pitching prospect to keep.

David Shields is another hurler the Royals can't consider trading

After grabbing current Royal Jac Caglianone in the first round of the 2024 draft, Kansas City scooped up Shields in the second. Like Causey, Shields didn't debut until this season but made the most out of his professional beginnings.

The young left-hander bounced back from giving up four runs over four innings in his lone Arizona Complex League appearance by surrendering only 16 earned runs in the 71.2 frames he worked at Single-A Columbia. He also won two of the three decisions he earned in 18 starts for the Fireflies and impressed with a 1.02 WHIP, 1.78 BB/9, and 10.23 K/9.

Those numbers certainly didn't go unnoticed as Shields won the Carolina League's Pitcher of the Year award and earned a spot on the league's All-Star team. Clearly, he's worthy of keeping off the trade market this winter.

The Royals shouldn't try to deal away Carson Roccaforte

The Royals didn't make earth-shattering news when they spent their Competitive Balance-B pick, a selection sandwiched between Rounds 2 and 3 of the 2023 draft, on collegiate outfielder Roccaforte. But choosing him seemed a good move when later that summer he hit .293 with a .391 OBP, drove in 15 runs, and stole 16 bases in 35 games spread between the Arizona Complex League and Single-A Columbia.

His second season, though, was different. Promoted to High-A Quad Cities, Roccaforte swiped 34 bases and hit 10 homers, but slumped to .208/.293/.342, a slide from which he showed clear signs of escaping when he returned to Quad Cities this season and homered 13 times, stole another 33 bases and, despite batting only .237, posted a .364 OBP in 82 games.

Fortunately, things got even better for Roccaforte when in late July he moved up to Double-A Northwest Arkansas, where his average jumped to .297 and his OBP rose over 20 points to .387. The 45-game effort also included 10 more steals and he walked 27 times to give him 82 walks in 551 plate appearances for the year.

Roccaforte, then, is a prospect not to be taken lightly. Combined with his knack for getting on base, his 93 career steals make him a formidable basepath threat, and he's displaying some decent power. Considering their conspicuous lack of productive outfield bats, now isn't the time for the Royals to trade an outfielder who might soon add some much-needed punch to their lineup.

Parting with their top prospect wouldn't be a good move for the Royals

The 2025 version of spring training is something Blake Mitchell, Kansas City's No. 1 prospect per MLB Pipeline, probably prefers to forget. Invited to major league camp, he didn't see a single Cactus League pitch — the fractured hamate bone he suffered in late February, and which required surgery, removed him from the club's spring picture and forced him out of action until Quad Cities, to whom he'd been assigned, sent him on an Arizona Complex League rehab assignment in May.

Mitchell played 11 ACL games before returning to Quad Cities and hitting only .207 with two homers in 49 games. But he posted an excellent .372 OBP, an unsurprising mark given his three-year career .379.

Mitchell falling short of stellar batting stats isn't surprising, though — his season must be considered against the backdrop of his injury. He'll get the chance to improve his injury-tainted numbers in the Arizona Fall League where, together with Causey, Roccaforte, and other KC minor leaguers, he'll begin play this month.

Hopefully, Mitchell's bat will heat up in the AFL. But even if it doesn't, the Royals shouldn't trade their top prospect.