Today is the day, the future becomes reality as the next generation is ushered into professional baseball. At 12 p.m. CT, the first-round of the 2026 MLB Entry Draft gets underway and Kansas City Royals fans won’t have to wait long for their team to make a selection as they hold the sixth overall pick. With a weaker looking system than many, this is a pick that seems crucial for the Royals to get right.
However, while so many teams before are rumored to be sticking to the status quo, some draft experts believe the Royals may be the first team to deviate from the norm and shake things up on Saturday afternoon. According to Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline, he feels the Royals at six could be a place where the first non-chalk pick could occur, alluding to perhaps a lower ranked college arms being an option here.
“I’m going to say there are two college lefties that I think could end up going somewhere inside the Top 10 and the more likely one is Mason Edwards from USC and the other is Cole Carlon from Arizona State,” Mayo wrote.
This isn’t the first time a college arm has floated to the Royals in the first round, nor one of these two names. Just this week, Keith Law of The Athletic proposed the idea of Edwards to the Royals at sixth, citing it as a means to save draft pool funds and allocate them elsewhere, potentially to over slot high school talent.
What might the Royals have up their sleeve for the first round of MLB Draft?
The fact that the Royals also have the 30th overall pick and the 56th overall pick means they could go plenty of different ways with their first selection.
Going chalk in the Top 10 and grabbing a consensus top prospect is well within the realm of possibility. One of these names could be a prep bat like Jacob Lombard, whom the Royals appear to be interested in and is currently ranked as the fifth overall draft prospect in the eyes of MLB Pipeline. Or perhaps, Pipeline’s sixth or eighth overall talents in outfielder Eric Booth Jr. or southpaw Gio Rojas, respectively, might be options here.
However, college prospects like Edwards or positionally Drew Burress might be an option as well. While drafting for major league need is always somewhat dangerous, the Royals aren’t the typical team drafting within the top six. The hope is likely to be competitive in 2027 and with such a very young system with skeptical depth in the upper minors, perhaps a more mature potential high-riser, similar to what they’re seeing from Justin Lamkin, might not be a horrible option. Then they could lean upon their strong draft pool funds to get those higher ceiling names over slot later on.
We’ll have to wait and see where the Royals go at pick six, as their war room is truly the only people who know their exact direction for Saturday. Regardless of direction though, there’s certainly plenty of intrigue for Royals fans for the first-round and the weekend as a whole.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
