Why KC Royals MLB Draft strategy isn't tunnel vision

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The KC Royals selected North Carolina A&T catcher Canyon Brown in the ninth round of the MLB Draft Monday afternoon. Aside from the somewhat catchy name and the fact he can hit, the pick won't attract much national attention — after all, the names of 256 players were called before his, and MLB Pipeline didn't include him on its long list of Top 250 draft prospects.

But the pick, made by the Royals in the ninth round and the club's next-to-last selection of Day 2, was significant nonetheless. Brown was the first non-pitcher chosen by the Royals in this year's amateur talent grab bag. Counting as we should two-way player Jac Caglianone, the spectacular two-way player the Royals jumped on with their first pick (sixth overall) Sunday, Kansas City selected eight straight pitchers before detouring to Brown.

And after choosing him, they immediately picked another pitcher (more on that in a moment).

Tunnel vision? Too narrow a focus?

Hardly.

The Royals are justified in taking so many pitchers

That the KC draft team, a unit led by new amateur scouting director Brian Bridges, are opting for a pitching bonanza is no surprise. The Royals have struggled for years to assemble a core of prime-cut pitchers, and even their pitching-heavy 2018 draft class, which included Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, Daniel Lynch IV, Jackson Kowar, Jonathan Bowlan, and Austin Cox, hasn't come close to meeting expectations.

Deep statistical analysis isn't necessary to prove how subpar KC's pitching has for too long been — Royals fans, and the team, have suffered years of inconsistent rotations and nerve-wracking bullpens. The fix, of course, is to find better pitchers, and that's precisely what Bridges and his crew are trying to do during this three-day draft.

Besides Caglianone and second round pick Drew Shields, who are the pitching eggs the Royals have put in their draft basket through Round 2?

Let's find out...

Kansas City grabbed 2 from MCWS champion Tennessee

It's hard to go wrong when you get key players from a Men's College World Series title winner, and that's just what the Royals did Monday when they drafted Drew Beam in the third round and A.J. Causey in the fifth.

Beam, a right-hander MLB Pipeline ranked as the 64th-best draft-eligible player and says is "one of the safest bets in this Draft to make it as a big league starter", was 9-2 with a 4.22 ERA in 19 starts for the Vols this season; he also won nine games last year, was 8-1 in 2022, and posted ERAs of 2.72 that season and 3.63 in 2023.

Causey, also a righty, is a sidearmer who pitched at Tennessee this year after spending his first two collegiate seasons at Jackson State. For 2024, he was 13-3, 4.43 in six starts and 13 relief appearances.

The Royals twice dipped into Louisiana Monday

They're not from the same school, but Kansas City's picked two Louisiana collegians — L.P. Langevin and Nate Ackenhausen — on Day 2.

Right-hander Langevin pitched for Louisiana-Lafayette this season and went 6-1 with a 3.73 ERA in 23 games, only three of which came in relief. The 33 walks he issued in 62.2 innings suggest the Royals need to work on his control; on the other hand, he struck out 106 batters. He was this season's Sunbelt Conference Pitcher of the Year. KC chose him in Round 4.

LSU lefty Ackenhausen, who the Royals selected in Round 10 to close out their Day 2 picks, pitched primarily out of the bullpen in two Tiger seasons. Not a Pipeline Top 250 prospect, the 5.65 ERA he posted this season is concerning and, like Langevin, his control requires attention, but he fanned 95 in 72.2 innings in his two-season LSU stint.

Moving on...

Three other right-handers also made Kansas City's pick list

The Royals swept up three righties to complete their Monday pitching selections.

Texas A&M's Tanner Jones was the first of the three KC took off the board. Picked in Round 6, Jones, who you won't find among Pipeline's Top 250, pitched two years at Jackson State with Round 5 Royals pick Causey before going 3-1, 6.33 in 15 games (12 starts) for the Aggies this season. He was 9-7 during his two-years at Jackson State.

Kansas City chose Northeastern's Dennis Colleran in Round 7. Colleran had Tommy John Surgery in 2022 but, according to Pipeline, which ranks him No. 207, he regularly hit the high-90s with his fastball this season, and also throws a slider and changeup. He was 0-1, 4.50 at Northeastern before his elbow injury struck two seasons ago, and 1-2, 7.97 this year; that ERA is definitely disquieting and signals he'll be a project, but the Royals have to be encouraged by his 2024 10.2 S09 and fastball velocity.

Duke's Nick Conte went to Kansas City in Round 8. After injury forced him out of action for all of the 2023 season, Conte struck out eight, walked four, and gave up three runs in six innings for the Blue Devils this year. He pitched only three times in 2022, but was 2-1 in with 15 strikeouts over 10 innings in 10 games in 2021, albeit with a high 5.40 ERA. He, too, will require some work.

And what about that catcher?

Back to Canyon Brown, the only non-pitcher the Royals took in Monday's eight rounds.

He can definitely handle the bat. He slashed /.276/.349/.469 for North Carolina A&T two seasons ago, .275/.362/.449/ last year, and .310/.414/.492 this season. Brown also slugged 18 homers and drove in 116 runs over 151 games during those three campaigns.

The KC Royals aren't drafting too many pitchers

Don't blame Kansas City for focusing so much on pitchers. No one can dispute the organization's need for more hurlers and more pitching depth. And draftscan be a means of creating an inventory of trade deadline prospects — contenders and non-contenders alike always talk pitching when deadline time approaches.

There's a method to what some may perceive as madness.