Grading the Kansas City Royals' last 5 first round draft picks

The MLB Draft is just a day away and the Kansas City Royals will be opening their draft night by selecting No. 23 in the first round.

They're still marveling in their 2024 first round success, as their sixth overall selection in Jac Caglianone has translated his immense 30+ home run power at the Florida into blistering power at the major league level in less than a year.

This time around, the Royals won't have the luxury of selecting within the Top 10 like last year, or the greater part of the last decade, as they'll be in unfamiliar draft territory after their magical run to the postseason in 2024.

However, how they'll navigate this year's draft remains to be seen and is a story for a different day, but let's take a look back at the last five drafts and see how the Royals have fared with their opening round choices.

Grading the Kansas City Royals' last 5 first round draft picks

2020: Asa Lacy

For a top five pick to be considered a steal sounds strange is certainly uncommon, however this is was precisely the case that the Royals were in when a top three draft prospect (according to MLB Pipeline) fell to them at pick No. 4 in Asa Lacy. The southpaw out of Texas A&M put together an excellent 2.33 ERA season in 2019 and then followed that up with a 0.75 ERA in 2020.

However, five years in and Lacy has still yet to make a real impact as member of the Royals system. Injuries have been the prime culprit behind his ineffectiveness. Between Tommy John surgery and back ailments, the lefty hasn't pitched since 2022. And when he has been on the mound he's been largely ineffective, pitching to a 5.19 ERA in 52.0 innings of High-A ball in 2021 and then a combined 10.61 ERA in 28.0 innings of work beween the complex and Double-A in 2022.

There's still time for luck to potentially get on his side, but with how pro ball has treated him to this point, the odds may not be in his favour. And at 26-years-old, he's not getting any younger. For now, Lacy could very well be the biggest bust in Royals draft history.

Grade: F

2021: Frank Mozzicato

Mozzicato was a bit of a head scrtacher at the No. 7 overall pick in 2021, considering he was ranked No. 39 on MLB Pipeline's big board on draft night that year. However, that didn't deter the Royals from taking the high school lefty in the Top 10.

For awhile there, it looked like potentially they had made a mistake reaching on him early, as a 3.04 ERA in Low-A Columbia in was the only real highlight of the first two years he had in the minors. His control issues resulted, and still do to a degree, in inflated ERAs (such as a 7.12 in High-A Quad City in 2023) and WHIPs (such as a 1.83 in that same year and level).

However, after a more serviceable High-A campaign at a 3.45 ERA in 2024, Mozzicato started to restore hope that maybe he could be something. And after 1.24 ERA in Quad City in 2025, before being promoted to the upper minors in Double-A Northwest Arkansas for the first time, he could very well be someone to consider planning for in the future. His 2025 Futures Game invitation helps with that narrative as well.

He's struggling again now to starts Double-A, but that goes with the pattern he's displayed so far of taking a while to settle in and then putting it together after getting his footing, meaning even if it's a slower path to the big leagues, there still might be a path for newly-turned 22-year-old.

Grade: C+

2022: Gavin Cross

The Royals used the ninth selection in 2022 to nab Cross, and it's tough to gauge how exactly to feel about it.

Cross came out at a blistering 168 wRC+ pace when leaving the complex for Low-A in 2022, however he's failed to reach that form since. He was below average for the most part in 2023 (93 wRC+ in Double-A) and then in 2024 he did manage to get back up to an above-average hitter in Northwest Arkansas (114 wRC+). That being said 2025 has not been kind to him, as he's hitting just .204 with a .590 OPS and 60 wRC+

Cross still has the backing of many prospect experts, as he still holds double-digit homer power and before this year, the capability to draw walks more than 10% of the time and swipe 20+ bags. However, at 24-years-old already and still finding his footing in Double-A, he may not be the solution in the outfield the Royals would have hoped he's be as a Top 10 pick, not matter how "toolsy" he is.

Grade: D+

2023: Blake Mitchell

Now we move into frankly some of the Royals better first round selections in franchise history, starting with Blake Mitchell in 2023. Kansas City selected the talented backstop with the eighth overall selection in 2023.

At just 20 years of age, Mitchell has spent his professional career in the A-levels, but has done nothing but rake so far, earning him the 33rd overall ranking on MLB Pipeline's Top 100 prospect list. In 466 plate apperances in Low-A in 2024 he sported a 135 wRC+. Then, in 2025 so far, he's bounced back from a pre-season broken wrist and not skipped a beat in High-A, jumping out to an early 170 wRC+ in his first three games.

When you pair his hitting prowess with his electric arm behind the dish, there's a reason as to why he sits in the top five up-and-coming catchers in the game. The proof of how good this pick will be will be how he performs against the best of the best competition in the minors when he reaches the upper minors, but he's passed nearly every test with flying colors to this point.

Grade: A-

2024: Jac Caglianone

It's easy to wax poetic about a talent as gifted as Caglianone, as since the Royals took him at No. 6 in last season's draft he's done nothing but hit in his journey to the major leagues.

He took the league by storm early, as in his first 38 games in Double-A, he hit .322 with a .947 OPS and 158 wRC+ before getting his shot at Triple-A, where it was much of the same. It took just 12 games of hitting .319 with a 1.094 OPS and 165 wRC+ for J.J. Picollo and the Royals front office to deem Caglianone as big league ready.

While his opening taste of the majors hasn't been as spectacular as many had hoped after the minor league clinic he put on to start the year, but he's still just 22-years-old and is hitting missiles of home runs in the majors already. Safe to say, he was 100% worth the pick and the Royals don't have any regrets about it.

Grade: A+