The Kansas City Royals have an important decision on their hands when the sixth pick rolls around during Saturday’s MLB Draft, one that could potentially alter their franchise. Picking within the Top 10 gives teams the opportunity to add game-changing talent to their system. The Royals know this first hand, having selected the likes of Zack Greinke, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Bobby Witt Jr. as Top 10 picks in the past among others.
However, they also know the contrary of how bad it can look when a pick in this upper echelon range doesn’t go to plan. Unfortunately blunders like this have occurred far too often for this franchise.
While the Royals have made plenty of draft day mistakes, there are a few that stand out in particular as major ones. In terms of mistakes made within the Top 10, here are the five biggest ones they’ve made:
Luke Hochevar played his role for Royals, but other names better fit No. 1 overall pick
There’s a difference between draft busts and draft mistakes. The Royals have plenty of draft busts in their franchise’s history, but by no means was Luke Hochevar a bust for them having played a key part in their World Series winning bullpen back in 2015.
However, a nine year MLB career derailed by injury and producing a career ERA only a touch below 5.00 is hardly what the Royals had in mind when they selected him first overall out of Tennessee on 2006.
It’s not that he wasn’t a strong draft prospect, having thrown to a 15-3 record with 154 strikeouts and a 2.26 ERA in his junior year in Knoxville. However, other names that made more of a big league impact were apparently taken out of the running by then General Manager Dayton Moore before draft night even began.
Prospect guru Jim Callis, now of MLB Pipeline but formerly with Baseball America, wrote then that Moore was against drafting the “consensus top talent in the draft” in Andrew Miller despite the fact Miller was “the preferred choice of Kansas City’s scouting department”.
Now, Miller may’ve crafted a better career than Hochevar, representing one of the best relievers in baseball in his heyday with Cleveland during the mid-2010s. However, not even he was the best name to come out of that draft, with the likes of Clayton Kershaw, Evan Longoria, Tim Lincecum and Max Scherzer being selected within the next 10 picks after Hochevar.
Royals selected wrong high school talent in 2011 MLB Draft with Bubba Starling
The Royals had plenty of reason to be attracted to Bubba Starling during the 2011 MLB Draft. He was a Kansas high school product that MLB Pipeline’s scouting report hinted at a potential five-tool player in him.
However, while hindsight may be 20/20, there’s certainly plenty of reason to believe that the Royals may’ve reached for Starling. Not only did he fall outside the rankings of his fifth overall selction slot, with Pipeline placing him as the top prep prospect, but only eighth overall.
What makes matters worse, three picks later came Pipeline’s ninth ranked draft prospect in fellow prepster Francisco Lindor, who’s quickly become one of the greatest shortstops of the current generation.
What makes matters worse, he terrorized the Royals in the AL Central for years, as it was the Cleveland who selected him eighth overall that year.
Again, the Royals couldn’t have known Starling wouldn’t pan out, but 91 games and a 40 wRC+ across only two big league seasons in 2019 and 2020 certainly doesn’t make things any easier for fans to palate.
Rex Goodson was very first stain on the Royals’ MLB Draft strategy
While the new generation may not be as aware of the Royals’ 1970 MLB Draft, it was the first time they’d actually signed a first-round pick after their inaugural pick in 1969 failed to ink a deal with them.
With such pressure to build up their farm system right from the get-go, the Royals really needed to ensure that they got their eighth overall pick right. Unfortunately for them, Goodson wasn’t the man to fulfill such a duty.
He would never surpass Double-A and was out of affiliated ball entirely by 1973. As a minor leaguer, he’d manage to look strong enough, hitting .274 with a .734 OPS, but that doesn’t necessarily scream of a Top 10 pick.
And when you consider greats like Fred Lynn, Goose Gossage and Bruce Sutter were among others drafted after Goodson, only makes Kansas City’s selection that much more a painful pill to swallow.
Frank Mozzicato hasn’t proved to be worth the under slot gamble for the Royals
When the Royals picked at seven in the 2021 MLB Draft, there were plenty of avenues they could go. However, instead of going with a Top 10 projected prospect, Kansas City’s brain trust opted to take the under slot approach, selecting high school left-handed pitcher Frank Mozzicato and signing him for nearly $2 million under slot value.
While this approach isn’t unprecedented and not a bad option sometimes to allocate draft pool money elsewhere, it’s a gamble nonetheless. And for the Royals, selecting MLB Pipeline’s No. 39 overall prospect seventh overall has not reaped the rewards they would’ve hoped.
Mozzicato has had his highs in the minors, such as featuring alongside Carter Jensen in the 2025 MLB Futures Game, but more often than not he’s been an uncontrolled arm that’s yet to surpass Double-A Northwest Arkansas.
After making the jump to Double-A half way through last season, he threw to a 7.46 ERA with 8.42 BB/9 in 56.2 innings. Then this season, he’s looked even worse there, throwing to an 8.94 ERA and 8.75 BB/9 in 47.1 innings.
At this point it’s hard to see a Triple-A arm when looking at Mozzicato, let alone a major league arm. And considering this draft has already produced major league talents who were drafted as high schoolers and lower than Mozzicato like James Wood, Jackson Merrill, Bubba Chandler, Colson Montgomery and even his former teammate in Carter Jensen, it’s not as if age has anything to do with his struggles.
Royals should have followed others’ lead when it came to Asa Lacy in 2020
There were three names that seemed like surefire bets to go 1-2-3 in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft; Spencer Torkleson, Austin Martin and Asa Lacy. So, when the latter two of those three were still on the board when they picked at four, it appeared they were in euphoria.
However, while the Royals selected Lacy in this spot, perhaps they should’ve taken the hint from the Baltimore Orioles and Miami Marlins with the two picks prior and gone elsewhere beyond the obvious.
Lacy already came with command and control concerns out of Texas A&M and those never went away when he joined the Royals minor league system, with BB/9 marks ranging between 7.10 and 15.75 in his stops between the complex and Double-A during his minor league career.
Then, there’s the injuries, as Lacy never managed to appear in the Royals’ system beyond 2022 due to a myriad of surgeries. First it was shoulder surgery in 2021, then back injuries in 2022 and 2023, followed by a two Tommy John surgeries in 2023 and 2025.
Lacy was subsequently released from the Royals organization this season, putting an end to one of the worst experiments in franchise history.
The signs were there that perhaps Lacy was a name to steer clear from with a Top 5 pick and the Royals couldn’t resist the urge. And with dwindling pitching depth in the organization here in 2026, Kansas City could’ve used a win with this high-profile pick.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
