{"id":2499819,"date":"2026-07-13T08:10:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2499819"},"modified":"2026-07-13T08:10:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:10:33","slug":"zion-rose-excited-for-dream-mlb-opportunity-with-kc-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/zion-rose-excited-for-dream-mlb-opportunity-with-kc-royals\/","title":{"rendered":"Zion Rose excited for dream MLB opportunity with KC Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kansas City Royals first-round pick Zion Rose is no stranger to high expectations.<\/p>\n

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In fact, he thrives on it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJust a competitor,\u201d Rose said. \u201cI\u2019m doing everything I can to win. Honestly, nothing that I do is selfish. It\u2019s for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Saturday, the Royals took a chance on his potential. Rose was selected sixth overall<\/a> ahead of higher-rated outfielders still on the board.<\/p>\n

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The Royals said they believed Rose was among the best players available<\/a>. It was clear that the organization loved his competitive spirit. And as a former prep catcher, Rose showcased a rare set of intangibles.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne thing I will tell you about Zion, he\u2019s been a captain at Louisville for two years,\u201d Royals scouting director Brian Bridges said. \u201cLet\u2019s start there. Character \u2014 check that box. He\u2019s a winner. He\u2019s a warrior. He\u2019ll give you everything he\u2019s got.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rose starred at the University of Louisville. And two years ago, he made the full transition to the outfield<\/a> while continuing to post dominant numbers.<\/p>\n

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This season, Rose hit .417 with six homers, 47 RBIs and a 1.137 OPS in 36 games. He also made the 2024 ACC All-Freshman Team and is a two-time All-ACC first-team selection (2025, 2026).<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not a guy that\u2019s trying to do too much,\u201d Rose said. \u201cAgain, there\u2019s certain parts of my game that\u2019s ready to develop in terms of power and all that. But man, I\u2019m going to get to the ball wherever it\u2019s pitched. I\u2019m going to put balls in play.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Royals have struggled to find consistent outfield production. Now, Rose will look to carve his path to the big leagues. In recent weeks, he enjoyed the predraft process talking with the Royals and had an inkling about his draft floor.<\/p>\n

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And he was grateful to be selected at sixth overall.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI knew what the floor was around like 35,\u201d Rose said. \u201cAnd I never want to put any limitations on myself. \u2026 And I got in the top 10 with the Royals. Obviously, they see something in me, so I\u2019m grateful that they gave me the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rose will have some familiarity with the Royals. He attended Brother Rice High School in Chicago \u2014 which Royals second baseman Michael Massey also attended.<\/p>\n

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Rose spent three years there before finishing up at IMG Academy. He has known Massey for a while and even played for his brother in high school.<\/p>\n

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And he feels comfortable getting to learn from Massey while picking his brain about how to navigate professional baseball.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s a great role model,\u201d Rose said. \u201cI can remember him coming out, we were practicing in high school and he\u2019d be shagging baseballs before he was going on to spring training. \u2026 It\u2019s just nice being able to have that connection with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rose is expected to sign with the Royals. It\u2019s possible he could end up under his assigned $7,750,000 slot value<\/a>. The Royals have $15,954,000 in bonus pool money to disperse for their 2026 MLB Draft class.<\/p>\n

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The Royals have continued to add talented position players. Rose follows 2025 top selections Sean Gamble and Josh Hammond. Both have produced in their first professional seasons.<\/p>\n

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Gamble has 23 stolen bases at the Single-A level. Meanwhile, Hammond is hitting .282 with five home runs and 32 RBIs in 79 games.<\/p>\n

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Rose has the speed to stick in a corner outfield spot. Despite dealing with ankle and hamstring injuries, he performed well when active. He felt the injuries allowed him to gain perspective and help his teammates from the dugout.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI feel like you learn so much about your body,\u201d Rose said. \u201cAnd I learned a lot about my feet and the structure and how to keep them healthy. (Just) knowing without your feet (you) can\u2019t move, especially in baseball. So I need to keep those healthy, keep my legs healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rose will head to Surprise, Arizona, next week with the rest of the club\u2019s 2026 draft class. From there, he will get a chance to join rookie ball in the second half of the year.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s an experience he can\u2019t wait to explore.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been my dream for a long time,\u201d Rose said. \u201cSo just to be able to see it come to fruition was amazing to be here with my family. You know, the people that support me my whole life that got me to this point. And yeah, I\u2019m just grateful to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Jaylon Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jaylon Thompson covers the Royals for The Kansas City Star. He previously covered the 2021 World Series and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jaylon is a proud alumnus of the University of Georgia.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kansas City Royals first-round pick Zion Rose is no stranger to high expectations. In fact, he thrives on it. \u201cJust a competitor,\u201d Rose said. \u201cI\u2019m doing everything I can to win. Honestly, nothing that I do is selfish. It\u2019s for the team.\u201d On Saturday, the Royals took a chance on his potential. Rose was selected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2448358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2499819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Beck-Way-records-two-strikeouts-in-Royals-debut.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2499819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2499820,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499819\/revisions\/2499820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2448358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2499819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2499819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2499819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}