Tuesday was an important day for roster moves around Major League Baseball, and the moves the Kansas City Royals didn’t make said at least as much as those they did.
Eligible prospects had to be added to their teams’ 40-man rosters by Tuesday afternoon to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft. The Royals had a handful of those prospects, but only wound up protecting two of them.
Those two were right-handed pitches Ben Kudrna and Steven Zobac, according to the official MLB transactions log. But among those left unprotected were two recent Royals first-round picks.
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Royals choose not to protect Frank Mozzicato, Gavin Cross
Right-handed pitcher Frank Mozzicato, the Royals’ 2021 first-round pick, and outfielder Gavin Cross, the 2022 first-rounder were both left unprotected, and will be available for the other 29 teams to select on Dec. 10. However, if either was selected by a new organization, they would need to remain on that team’s active big-league roster all season, or they’d be returned to the Royals.
Mozzicato, 22, was the seventh overall pick four years ago, but pitched to a 5.03 ERA across 93 innings in High-A and Double-A this season, so the Royals are banking on teams not thinking he’s ready for the big leagues. The same goes for the 24-year-old Cross, who had a .704 OPS in his second-straight season in Double-A.
Mozzicato is the Royals’ No. 22 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, and Cross is No. 24. Kudrna and Zobac, who both had shaky seasons in their own right, are currently ranked No. 7 and No. 11.
Plus, the Royals had one more 40-man roster spot available, so although they’ll certainly fill it at some point during the offseason, it adds to the intrigue of leaving the likes of Mozzicato and Cross unprotected.
It’s impossible to predict who will be selected in the Rule 5 Draft, as every team has different needs and different methods of evaluating other organizations’ minor-leaguers. Former first-round picks go undrafted every year, and that may well be the case with Mozzicato and Cross.
However, if one of those prospects pops off with a new team, the Royals will have to feel some sting, because they were the ones who spent millions of dollars to sign them as amateurs.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com ’
