Former highly-touted Royals prospect reaches bittersweet minor league milestone

The future looks bright for the Kansas City Royals at first base. The position once anchored by team captain Mike Sweeney for 1,282 games, and later held by Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer during their seamless, successful run, is now firmly in the hands of Vinnie Pasquantino.

The left-handed slugger is putting together a career year and one that ranks among the best seasons by a first baseman in franchise history. With his breakout fueling Kansas City’s lineup, the offseason conversation will almost certainly turn to whether the Royals should extend the Old Dominion product and secure his bat for the long haul.

But before Pasquantino, Nick Pratto was billed as the future of first base. Now he’s left chasing Triple-A milestones at a point where he’s technically one step from the majors, yet further than ever from securing that coveted roster spot.

The Kansas City Royals and Nick Pratto once looked like the foreseeable future pair.

On Saturday, Pratto marked his 400th career game in an Omaha Storm Chasers uniform. He’s been a fixture at first base for Omaha over the past two seasons, logging 223 games there since the start of 2024.

But the California native hasn’t picked up a bat for the Royals since Oct. 1, 2023, when he collected two hits and an RBI against the visiting New York Yankees during yet another 100-loss campaign. Those final plate appearances stood out as a rare bright spot in what was otherwise a brutal 2023 season, punctuated by an 80 wRC+ paired with a staggering 40% strikeout rate.

For a former first-round pick, the shine faded fast, leaving Pratto’s big-league future in serious doubt at such a young age.

Truthfully, that wasn't the first time it happened.

Some evaluators slapped the “bust” label on Pratto after his first three professional seasons, when strikeouts piled up, the power didn’t quite translate, and his performance fell well short of expectations for the 14th overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft.

His glove at first base was excellent, but Kansas City hadn’t drafted him that high for defense alone. By the time the 2020 season was canceled, real questions lingered about how, or if, Pratto would ever fit into the Royals’ long-term plans.

And then 2021 happend.

That season was a big one for several other Royals prospects, but maybe no more so than Pratto. His 36 home runs and .988 OPS across Double-A and Triple-A action really catapulted him back onto Royals fans' radars, and he was one of the poster players for the new way Kansas City was getting the most out of hitters.

That season inspired wonder, amidst another losing season despite catcher Salvador Perez's best efforts, about what the next five years could look like in the lineup. For the first time in a few years, Kansas City had productive, powerful position players producing in the upper levels. It was a matter of when, not if, these players were taking meaningful at-bats in Kauffman Stadium and helping turn around the franchise.

Unfortunately, while shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has been as advertised and then some, Pratto and, namely, MJ Melendez have not been MLB success stories at the plate.

There is some room to cope with that reality. Melendez has been very productive for Omaha in 2025 after becoming unplayable in Kansas City earlier this year. His clock has not run out in MLB, but this season put Melendez back into an underdog spot for an Opening Day 2026 spot.

Meanwhile, Pratto isn't an underdog, but rather has similar odds to those of the Royals to make the 2025 postseason.

Since that final MLB plate appearance, Pratto hasn't been changing Kansas City's plans at the plate. His 76 wRC+ is among the worst for a Triple-A regular, while the 30% strikeout rate shows little to no progress in developing that bat-to-ball ability.

A .220/.309/.367 line gives him a .676 OPS, a palatable Sunday-only starter at the MLB level, but for an everyday guy in a batter-friendly Triple-A environment? That is not going to get the job done.

Pratto will be 27 come Opening Day 2027, but he will likely find himself back as a non-roster invitee to camp and back to Triple-A, in the best case. Worst case? Looking to find a new team after yet another step back in production, potential, and one less year to prove himself.

Pratto was an easy prospect to dream on. While evaluators and fans pined about what he could be if the strikeouts came down or the projected 70-grade power ever stayed consistent in a season, there was plenty to hope Pratto could be for the Royals. But now, with another full season of work in Omaha, it is simpler to talk about what he isn't for the team.

Let it be clear: having an extended career in the minors is nothing to be disappointed in. Pratto is ultimately one level away from the game's best, ready to answer the call if Kansas City needs him. But the reality is, Kansas City isn't calling.

Players like Mark Canha, Cavan Biggio, or Nick Loftin saw work at first base this season while Pratto kept suiting up for Omaha. If the team consciously chooses multiple other players over Pratto at this stage, the writing is on the wall for his time with the Royals.

But, Pratto is still plugging away after Triple-A game number 400, a milestone many ballplayers would love to reach. It is just disappointing that not long ago, fans thought Pratto would be seeing that body of work in the big leagues, with more of the production he showcased in 2021.

Pratto is firmly a "what could have been" rather than a "what may be".