Royals teenaged prospect’s unexpected jump into Top 100 only legitimizes rising farm system

If you let Royals social media tell it, you would think Kansas City had the worst farm system in the major leagues. While it’s missing a top 20 prospect or any highly rated prospect above A-ball, the top of the Royals’ farm features plenty of young high-upside talent, and MLB Pipeline agreed. Pipeline just updated its rankings, and four Royals have now made the cut amongst their Top 100 prospects.

High-A Quad Cities starting pitcher Kendry Chourio, Low-A Columbia infielder Josh Hammond, High-A starter David Shields, and now teenage outfielder Angeibel Gomez (currently in the Dominican Summer League) are all among the 100 best prospects.

The Royals were busy this Winter with their international signings and getting another quality haul. They were fortunate enough to grab at least three members of MLB Pipeline’s Top 50 International Prospects list. This marks the second year in a row they’ve nabbed at least three players from the International top 50, under Daniel Guerrero, the Royals’ director of international scouting.

Gomez is the crown jewel of the group, signing for $2.9 million. Ranked as the 4th overall prospect in his class, the youngster already possesses some seriously tantalizing tools.

Angeibel Gomez is capturing hearts and minds of baseball community already

Equipped with what MLB.com writer Jesse Borek called “SEC football-like physicality”, his skills have been on full display in the DSL so far. Borek recalled a talent evaluator saying watching Gomez hit his top speed is like watching a bronco run.

Even if the mere mention of broncos makes your stomach hurt like mine, you have to be excited about a statement like that. At just 17-years-old, the aforementioned physicality is evident in his 6-foot-2, 173-pound frame. What scouts and evaluators are salivating over is his speed and hit tool that goes with that frame. MLB.com grades his speed at 70 on the 20-80 scale and his hit and power grades as 50 and 55 respectively.

To say he’s turned heads this season would not give the kid the proper respect to his game. He’s had heads spinning in his first taste of professional ball, becoming an All-Star in the DSL and ranking in the top 10 in homers (6), slugging percentage (.631), and OPS (1.084).

His advanced eye at the plate has helped him have a ridiculously low 10.9% strikeout rate, further illustrating how Gomez has dominated the DSL.

It’s not common to join a list as prestigious as Pipeline’s Top 100 as a 17-year-old just six months after signing, but Gomez is proving to be a very uncommon prospect. Royals’ fans may not seem him until the calander hits 2030, but his journey through the minors will be magnified until he reaches the states.

If he can replicate any of the numbers he’s put up in the DSL at the low or high-A level, Gomez will be a household name around the country in short order. The Royals have a track record of success with their international signings and it looks like they could have another star in the making down the road.