Red-hot Royals youngster continues to put prospect world on notice in AFL

The Kansas City Royals sent a pretty sizable list of prospects to the Arizona Fall League this season, with plenty of names to get excited about.

Top 100 prospect the Royals No. 2 overall farmhand Blake Mitchell has been grabbing headlines as expected and it was no shock that he was named as an AFL All-Star on Thursday.

However, Mitchell has not been the name most Royals fans will likely remember when it comes to this year’s autumn showcase. That memorable distinction has to go to none other than Daniel Vazquez, who’s been grabbing headlines seemingly day-after-day and was also named to the AL All-Star roster himself.

Royals’ Daniel Vazquez has been turning heads in Arizona Fall League

While Vazquez is certainly not a nobody in the Royals system by any means, carrying distinction of being a Top 20 prospect (No. 16 according to Pipeline) in the organization, expectations likely weren’t as high for him as they were for a guy like Mitchell.

After all, he was coming off a season that wasn’t great by any means. A majority of his games this past year came in High-A Quad Cities where he slashed .260/.336/.349 with one homer, 42 RBI, 26 stolen bases and a 98 wRC+ in 105 games. It had good aspects, but it wasn’t a spectacular overall body of work.

This has not been the case for Vazquez this fall though, as the 21-year-old has shown out as one of the best hitters in the AFL.

In 20 games to this point, Vazquez has driven in the fifth most RBI of any prospect with 18, while hitting .329 with a .922 OPS – both of which rank in the Top 20. He’s also managing to shine beyond the bat, showcasing his blistering speed with the sixth highest stolen base total at 10.

And he’s doing al, of this in manners that are nothing short of exciting, whether that’s finding ways to drive in game-altering runs or touching up some of the games top rated prospect arms – like he did against Reds’ top prospect Rhett Lowder this past weekend with 106.1 mph homer.

Simply put, Vazquez is showcasing an all-around game that the prospect world will have to take notice of moving forward.

His speed an defense was already there, with 60 FV grades on his run and field tools according to MLB Pipeline, but now he’s showing that he’s able to not only hit the ball, but come through with the bat in higher-pressure situations and make plenty of hard contact.

Vazquez seems to be well on his way to moving up prospect rankings around the industry, and the Royals might just have another young gem on their hands after a year where their system was defined by fast-rising names, like David Shields and Kendry Chourio.