This Royals 2025 draft flier is turning heads in Arizona Instructional League

The Kansas City Royals’ farm system is undeniably trending in the right direction, though it’s still a work in progress. Rebuilding a pipeline takes years, and it is not just drafting talent, but also putting the right developmental processes in place to turn tools into production.

Carter Jensen is a great case study. The Royals used a third-round pick on the hometown catcher in 2021, and only now are fans seeing him in Kansas City. That’s the reality of taking prep players: the payoff takes time, but when it clicks, it shows the system is working.

The same doesn't usually apply to collegiate players. The Los Angeles Angels, who Kansas City just finished up a series against, are notorious for fast-tracking collegiate draftees to the majors. Fans may remember pitcher Brandon Finnegan from the 2014 MLB Draft, who signed with the Royals on June 28, 2014, and made his MLB debut that same September. It still astounds me that he was the first player to play in the College World Series and the World Series in the same year.

Anyways, all that to say, the right college players should be rising through the farm system faster. But not all 2025 draftees made their affiliated ball debut yet, for one reason or another.

The Royals took a flier on Shane Van Dam with impressive results in Arizona

That is where the Arizona Instructional League comes in handy. Not affiliated ball, not the Arizona Fall League, rather a place to help give draftees a place to develop and some more game time before the offseason begins.

Kansas City has a solid group of players down there, with FanGraphs' Eric Longenhagen calling the roster "loaded." He named three pitchers on the roster who are in MLB Pipeline's top 30 Royals prospects as just the tip of the iceberg. But it was a later-round pick in pitcher Shane Van Dam who Longenhagen called "their most impressive arm."

"Van Dam had Tommy John surgery in 2024 and wasn’t back until the very end of the 2025 college season, when he threw just eight innings. This is a 6-foot-5 righty of prototypical pro pitcher build, with a lovely arm action and a plus curveball. Van Dam sat 95-96 during this outing. Context is important: This is a well-rested individual airing it out in short bursts right now, but if this is a thing Van Dam can sustain through the first couple months of the 2026 season, he’s going to be one of the Royals’ better pitching prospects. He had the look of a 40+ FV pitcher on this day, and given how little track record he has due to injury, he’ll enter the offseason on the 40+/40 FV line, which is pretty heavy for a ninth rounder."

Eric Longenhagen, FanGraphs

Longenhagen even filmed Van Dam facing three San Diego Padres batters in an outing, including a plate appearance from rehabbing former All-Star Xander Bogaerts.

Sure, it didn't end well. You win some, you lose some. A rookie in instructional ball facing off against a five-time Silver Slugger winner is often going to favor the batter.

Kansas City drafted Van Dam in the ninth round of this past draft, good for 278th overall. He began his collegiate career with SUNY Cortland in New York before transferring to North Carolina State in 2024 for his sophomore year. Van Dam only made 19 appearances for the Wolfpack across two seasons, working as a reliever and dealing with a UCL tear in May 2024.

After he returned from injury in 2025, he was a multi-inning pitcher and recorded his first career start on May 6. Van Dam feels like a player that teams would expect to slide down this far in the draft. The results were not great, but he varied everywhere from a single-inning reliever to the bulk pitcher in 2024.

Baseball America labelled Van Dam as "a likely reliever in pro ball", and the pitch mix would suggest that is a probable outcome. Fans will only get glimpses of what a player is doing in the instructs, but given Van Dam's build, limited pitch arsenal, and subpar control, the bullpen seems like a quality landing spot.

It is worth noting that Longehagen celebrated Van Dam's curveball on the day, while Baseball America described his primary breaking offering as a "slider with a lot of gloveside sweeping action." Could Kansas City be expanding his arsenal ahead of 2026? It is something worth watching, but that is for next year.