Why KC Royals MLB Draft strategy isn't tunnel vision

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...