5 most successful Rule 5 Draft picks in KC Royals history

At this point in the 2024-25 MLB offseason, baseball fans have a ton of fun happenings to look forward to — Juan Soto's inevitable signing, the hot stove heating up, and, of course, the Rule 5 Draft.

To keep a long story short, the Rule 5 Draft is put into place so organizations can't keep their top prospects in the minor leagues for too long without adding them to their 40-man roster. Players that signed at 18 or younger aren't eligible to be taken in the R5D until after their fifth season of pro ball, while players that signed at 19 or older (typically out of college) are eligible after their fourth season.

Any player selected will need to be on the claiming team's 26-man active roster all season long, or else he needs to be sent back to his original club. For a full breakdown of all of the rules and regulations, check out MLB's official glossary section on the event.

Very few players that get taken in the Rule 5 Draft wind up having long and successful careers, but the Kansas City Royals have been on the winning side of multiple selections over the course of their storied history.

Let's take a look back in time at the best Rule 5 selections in Royals history. We've got a lot of ground to cover and a ton of different options, but five players stick out above the rest.

5 best Royals Rule 5 Draft picks in franchise history

Billy Brewer

Originally taken off the Montreal Expos' hands back in the early-90s, Brewer immediately got to work on the Royals as an oft-used relief pitcher. The left-hander wasn't used in high-leverage spots, but he functioned as a reliable middle-relief pitcher who managed to get through the vast majority of his tenure with the Royals with a low ERA.

ERA doesn't always tell the full story, though. Brewer posted a 3.46 ERA in the 1993 season, but his FIP sat at 5.09. His 2.56 ERA the next year was even better, but that danged FIP stayed all the way up in the mid-4.00s at 4.58. This suggests that for nearly the entirety of his time on the Royals' roster, Brewer was one of the luckiest pitchers in the game.

Brewer didn't strike out many batters and was occasionally prone to walking his fair share. He ultimately wound up making 144 relief appearances for Kansas City and his 3.95 ERA is a respectable mark, even if his FIP doesn't think he deserves the praise. Good for you, Bill.

Brad Keller

A much more recent name that all followers of the Royals will know, Keller was initially claimed by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2017-18 offseason before being traded to Kansas City, where the standard Rule 5 rules still applied. Even though the Reds took him, the Royals now had to keep him on their roster through the following season.

To Keller's credit, he went from Double-A in the Arizona Diamondbacks' system all the way up to the big leagues at just 22 years of age. The right-hander instantaneously began to get looks out of the starting rotation, too, which is all the more impressive when considering his young age.

Keller wound up being a long-term figure on the Royals' pitching staff, even if the numbers weren't always pretty. He spent a total of six years in a variety of different roles, posting a cumulative 4.27 ERA and 105 ERA+ that put him a cool 5% above league-average across his 150 outings as a Royal.

Jon Nunnally

Hopping back in our time machine, Nunnally was taken from the Cleveland Indians and stayed with the Royals for two-and-a-half seasons. The outfielder's best showing with Kansas City was that first season in 1995, when he hit 14 home runs and posted an .829 OPS through 119 games. That performance earned him an eighth-place finish in the AL Rookie of the Year voting that season.

He went on to have a solid second-half with the Reds in 1997, but he never played as many games as he did in '95 again, and his numbers never really came close to repeating that throughout the rest of his six-year career.

Andy Sisco

Sisco, a behemoth of a man that stands at 6-foot-10 and checks in at 270 pounds, was taken by the Royals from the Chicago Cubs during the 2004-05 offseason. The left-hander was another true reliever that never earned a single start at the big league level.

Like most others on this list, Sisco's best season with the Royals (by far) was his first one in 2005. At 22 years old, he made 67 relief appearances which tied him for the 10th-most in the AL that year. Sisco struck out 76 batters and posted a 3.11 ERA, 3.79 FIP, and 142 ERA+ along the way.

Sisco's career went south from there, and he wound up posting ERAs of 7.10 and 8.36 in 2006 and 2007 before he hung it up and was never heard from again. That first year on the Royals was something special — which was enough to get him a spot on this list — but his strikeouts dipped, his walks were elevated, and he simply forgot what it was to be a big leaguer after that promising rookie campaign.

Joakim Soria

It's fitting that we went in alphabetical order on this list, because the best was saved for last. Soria — one of the most dominant closers in the game during his heyday — experienced a lengthy peak as the Royals' closer. He held that role down from 2007-2011, which was the span of his first stint with the club.

Originally selected from the San Diego Padres prior to the 2007 season, Soria immediately got to work and established himself as one of the more reliable and durable relief pitchers in all of baseball. He came back to the Royals for two years in 2016-17 and remained solid as a rock, despite the fact that he didn't function as their primary closer any longer.

All told, Soria played 14 years in the big leagues with seven of those coming as a Royal. He is fifth in Royals history in games played (427), third in both saves (162) and Win Probability Added (14.5), and will forever be viewed as one of the most successful relief pitchers in franchise history. That is a Rule 5 selection gone right.