Grading the last 5 top KC Royals MLB Draft picks

2020: Asa Lacy, pitcher

One draft suggestion: expect the unexpected. And the unexpected is just what happened to Kansas City in the first round of the 2020 draft.

The Royals had the fourth pick that year; some hoped they'd grab pitcher Asa Lacy, but that didn't seem likely considering everyone wanted Asa Lacy. But for reasons known only to them at the time, Detroit, Baltimore, and Miami all passed ... and Lacy belonged to Kansas City.

I wrote a few months after the draft that the Royals wouldn't rush Lacy to the majors; as it turns out, they've never had the chance, and his future languishes in uncertainty. Whether he ever makes it to The Show is questionable.

Why? Because injuries know Lacy all too well. He's been on and off the Injured List; a troublesome back kept him out of much of the 2022 campaign and robbed him of any game action last year.

And he won't pitch this season after undergoing elbow surgery in March.

Through it all, Lacy has made it as high as Double-A, but then only for 11 games in 2022. He's 4-7 with a 7.09 ERA in 29 minor league appearances, 19 of them starts. Expect him back next year.

It seeming unfair under his circumstances to assign Lacy a grade, we'll give him an Incomplete.