Checking in on KC Royals top five prospects after April's action

Any baseball fan knows this is not a week-by-week sport. Even though six or seven games a week makes for plenty of on-field action, it is still a drop in the bucket compared to the overall season. But what about a calendar month? After all, once April ends, the Kansas City Royals will have 31 games under their belts and many casual fans' minds will be made up about the club.

With that in mind, a month of action feels like a good time to check in on the franchise's top prospects. How are things down on the farm for Kansas City's top five prospects, according to MLB Pipeline?

1. 1B/OF Jac Caglianone (#20 overall prospect)

AA: .282/.360/.494, .854 OPS, 4 HR, 22 RBI, 11.0% BB%, 24.0% K%, .212 ISO, 129 wRC+

While Royals fans have been buzzing about Jac Caglianone’s bat at first base, prospect hounds are equally excited by his move to right field. In his first professional outing in the corner, the Florida product showed smooth routes, a cannon arm, and the kind of athleticism that—even in a 4–2 loss on April 24—hints at a very bright defensive future.

Whether he’s patrolling his natural position or learning a new one, Royals fans have pinned their hopes on his bat—and that rare 70-grade power—to ignite the team’s sputtering offense. His two-hit night against future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw only stoked that optimism, even if Kershaw is well past his prime.

Caglianone’s bat didn’t quite fire at High-A Quad Cities last year, but he’s dialed things in with Northwest Arkansas. He’s peppering hits to all fields—even launching opposite-field bombs with ease. His patient, two-strike approach has paid off, though a few too many whiffs in the zone have nudged his strikeout rate up slightly. That uptick isn’t alarming for a slugger of his power profile and should settle as he refines his swing. Royals fans are banking on that continued growth, even if general manager J.J. Picollo hasn’t nailed down a timeline for his promotion to the next level.

“How many at-bats? I don’t know how many at-bats it’ll be,” Picollo said to the Kansas City Star. “We’ll have guys evaluating him every night. That’s going to be part of the decision-making.”

That evaluation is both about his long-term potential, but if he is challenged in Texas League action. Royals director of player development Mitch Meier said, “If you’re better than the league and you’re ready for the next challenge, we’re not going to hold you back.”

Caglianone still has room to grow—his scouting report flags a few tweaks, but they won’t knock him off the top-prospect pedestal or set off alarm bells among fans. Naturals faithful should soak up every highlight-reel moment while they can.

2. C Blake Mitchell (#45 overall prospect)

Catcher Blake Mitchell still hasn’t made his first affiliated appearance. The 2023 first-round pick broke his right hamate bone in late February and faced a four-to-six-week recovery. Encouragingly, MLB.com reported back on April 26 that the Texas native is back in extended spring training games—a positive sign that he’s on the mend.

Nothing’s been announced on Mitchell’s return date, but a move back to Quad Cities feels right. He’s already earned a spot there—playing five games in 2024 after earning Carolina League All-Star honors in Low-A Columbia. In fact, he nearly posted a 20/20 season with the Fireflies, so there’s little left for him to prove at that level.

3. C Carter Jensen (#82 overall prospect)

AA: .221/.295/.314, .609 OPS, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 8.4% BB%, 31.6% K%, .093 ISO, 73 wRC+

The Royals boast plenty of catching depth in their farm system. While Mitchell remains the top backstop prospect, hometown product Carter Jensen usually isn’t far behind. Unfortunately, Jensen’s uncharacteristic slow start has cooled expectations for a late-season debut.

Jensen opened Double-A with four straight multi-hit games, only to follow that up with an equally long hitless skid. Early on, his patient approach and knack for drawing walks boosted his on-base rate but limited his power and bat-to-ball development. In 2024, he broke out of that mold—smashing a career-high 18 homers and posting a .191 ISO across High-A and Double-A.

At just 21, Jensen still has plenty of runway, but his early-season strikeout spike is a red flag. Thankfully, it looks more like a conscious tweak in his approach than a lasting issue. He’s on pace to bump his line-drive rate up to 27.5% and his opposite-field hit rate to 50.9%, and he already looks more assured behind the plate. After all, with Jensen calling the game, the Naturals’ pitching staff combined for the fourth no-hitter in franchise history.

Jensen still has plenty of time to shake off this slow start, but his early struggles are uncharacteristic for the lefty. He’s sticking to a solid approach at the plate, yet the results just aren’t there. If he doesn’t find his groove over the next month or two, there’s a hungry queue of catching prospects ready to step in.

4. RHP Ben Kudrna

AA: 0-2, 4.82 ERA, 2.73 FIP, 1.55 WHIP, 27.1% K%, 5.9% BB%, 29.3% CSW%

A Shawnee Mission product, right-hander Ben Kudrna returned to Double-A this season to rack up the kind of consistent success that earns a call-up. He and Jensen have formed a familiar battery, rising through the Royals’ system together. After a brief adjustment period in Northwest Arkansas, Kudrna’s early-season starts have flashed genuine promise—his fastballs sit in the zone, his changeup flashes late sink, and he’s shown the strike-throwing and whiff rates that could make him a factor at the next level.

Kudrna’s arsenal has come into its own this season—he’s leaned on his sinker against Texas League hitters and locked in both that pitch and a plus four-seam fastball. When he needs an out, he turns to a tumbling changeup or his slider. Though that slider hasn’t flashed its usual bite early on, Kansas City’s internal metrics might paint a brighter picture.

Kudrna’s surface stats don’t dazzle, but there’s no need to panic. Through four starts, hitters have benefited from an unsustainably high .411 BABIP against him. He’s excelled at what he can control—posting a career-best 4.60 K/BB ratio—and his 3.20 xFIP, another personal high, shows just how valuable his ability to limit long balls and free passes has been this season.

Watching his April 12 outing at Frisco, it’s clear that defensive miscues have turned routine innings into extra-long ones—par for the course in the minors. Once the defense behind him tightens up, Kudrna’s stats should start reflecting his true ability. The right-hander has no glaring mechanical flaws; he just needs to bump his first-pitch strike rate (45.9 %) to keep hitters off balance and avoid digging himself into those long innings.

5. LHP Noah Cameron

AAA: 0-2, 3.22 ERA, 3.84 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 30.3% K%, 9.0% BB%, 31.3% CSW%

MLB.com’s Anne Rogers recently noted that, over her five years covering the Royals, the biggest shift has been in pitching coaching and development. The big-league results back that up, and no better poster child for a late-round gem thriving under Kansas City’s system than Missouri native lefty Noah Cameron.

Taken 199th overall in the 2021 draft, he’s fully recovered from early-career Tommy John surgery and now anchors Triple-A Omaha’s rotation. This Storm Chasers workhorse quietly emerged as a dark-horse for Kansas City’s rotation, and his hot start this season has him squarely in line to make his first Kauffman Stadium start as the next man up.

Outside of an Apr. 18 outing where the Norfolk Tides tagged him for five runs, Cameron has been stellar with his pitch mix and north-south deception. His changeup is one of the best in Triple-A, finding the zone consistently and falling with 10.2" iVB. The release point and arm action are very similar to his slower-than-average four-seam fastball, and he has a 42.9% whiff rate on the offering this season.

The southpaw has plenty of north-south break, but same-handed batters are crushing some of Cameron's offerings in the young season. It doesn't help that Werner Park is hitter-friendly even by International League standards, but he has allowed two home runs and a .772 OPS in 25 plate appearances against left-handed batters. That has been his biggest black eye, accompanied by a slight uptick in walks

Still, Kansas City should love what Cameron’s doing in his second Triple-A season. His arsenal of pitches, cerebral approach, and competitive mindset mirror those of the Royals’ veteran starters. At 25, he’s primed for his first opportunity in a Royals uniform—he just needs to keep building on this momentum.