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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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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Those two were right-handed pitches Ben Kudrna and Steven Zobac, according to the official MLB transactions log<\/a>. But among those left unprotected were two recent Royals first-round picks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you like our content,\u00a0<\/em>choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nRoyals choose not to protect Frank Mozzicato, Gavin Cross<\/h2>\n