Two Royals prospects named among Baseball America’s top international arms

Carter Jensen was just the start for Kansas City Royals prospects popping up at Baseball America. The AL Central club's farm system is still trying to reach its pre-2022 heights, but the prospect pipeline is, as the lauded baseball outlet puts it, in a better spot today than it was 12 months ago.

The public's view of a farm system will always rely on prospect rankings or how recent top picks performed the season prior. But Kansas City is making leaps and bounds on the international free agent front, and the 2025 international free agent class has already unearthed two gems in Kendry Chourio and Freddy Contreras.

Is the Royals' international prospect pipeline back up and running?

Baseball America put out their top 20 pitchers from this previous winter's IFA class, which saw the aforementioned Kansas City duo pop up.

First, to little surprise, red-hot pitcher Kendry Chourio drew plenty of attention this season, and he landed at Baseball America's "Best of the Best" on this list.

"Chourio combines power stuff with feel to manipulate his secondary stuff and outstanding polish for a 17-year-old. It led the Royals to promote him from the DSL to the Rookie-level Florida Complex League to the Low-A Carolina League in one year. He posted a combined 3.51 ERA in 51.1 innings with 63 strikeouts and five walks for a minuscule 2.3% walk rate.

Chourio sits at 93-96 mph and touches 98. He also has a high-spin curveball at 2,600-2,800 rpm and feel for a changeup. Beyond prototype size, Chourio has everything else that would make him fit with the high-end high school pitchers in the 2026 draft who are his peers, except that Chourio next summer could finish his year in High-A or Double-A."

The quick rise and solid production at each level captured the attention of evaluators and Royals prospect hounds alike.

Chourio had his ups and downs for the Low-A Columbia Fireflies in 2025, but just reaching that level and having a solid postseason start to his name is a win in his first professional season. According to MLB Pipeline, Kansas City's eighth-best prospect should be in line for more attention and a higher ranking this winter ahead of next year's prospect updates.

Contreras is much less known than Chourio this season, but a similarly cheap signing is having a solid first professional season.

The Royals signed him out of the Dominican Republic for $147,500, and he was another player who took leaps and bounds from the signing period to the end of this season. Contreras was a solid signing when Kansas City picked him up, with a fastball in the low 90s range.

Now, he is touching 98 MPH and sitting in the mid-90s well into starts. Fastball velocity isn't everything, but he has some well-above-average induced vertical movement and has the curveball and changeup to freeze batters. He may not be a top 30 prospect yet for the Royals, but he cannot be too far outside of the rankings, depending on his 2026 level and production.

Contreras made 10 appearances and nine starts for the DSL Royals Ventura, pitching to the tune of a 3.30 ERA. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was a healthy 37:13 in 30.0 innings pitched. In his age-16 season, his 29.6% strikeout rate ranked third among qualified Royals minor-league starters, while his .202 batting average against ranked second in the same window.

Kansas City's farm ranking rose from 27th to 24th in Baseball America's mid-season ranking update, and ended 2025 with a B+ grade.

The system may not have the star power other teams do after Jac Caglianone's graduation. Still, Chourio and Contreras are in the early stages of Kansas City finding some international gems that just need some quick polish. Now these two pitchers need to prove this season wasn't a fluke in 2026, but that is a winter away.