The Kansas City Royals put forth an interesting draft strategy, albeit one that is not foreign to them. They started by giving Zion Rose a massive discount of nearly $2 million below slot value at the sixth overall pick, then spread those savings to a plethora of pitchers that made up seven of their next eight picks. The largest over slot recipient was third rounder Jack Slightom, though fourth rounder Dominic Battista, seventh rounder Dylan Vigue, ninth rounder Camden Johnson, and even fourteenth rounder Banks Wickersham saw healthy added money above their slot value. The Royals prioritize size in their pitchers, with fifteen of the sixteen pitchers in this class standing 6'3" or taller, eleven standing at least 6'4", and eighth rounder Hunter Possehl clocking in at 6'8", 245 pounds.
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Note that the number before a player's name indicates their draft position. For example, "2-50" would indicate that a player was taken in the second round with the fiftieth overall pick.
1-6: OF Zion Rose, Louisville
Slot value: $7.75 million. Signing bonus: $5.81 million ($1.94 million below slot value).
My rank: #25. MLB Pipeline: #30. ESPN: #18.
Five years ago, the Royals surprised everyone by popping Frank Mozzicato with the seventh overall pick and signing him for nearly $2 million below slot value. Mozzicato seems to be stalled at AA right now, but the Royals hope this time, a big discount at #6 will provide huge value. Rose's $5.8 million signing bonus was just under the slot value of the #12 pick, still a bit above his projections as most had him in the middle to back of the first round. Still, there is no doubt that Rose can hit. A well-known prep prospect out of IMG Academy in 2023, he made it to campus at Louisville and immediately hit .380/.455/.584 with a puny 9.4% strikeout rate across 44 games as a freshman. After blasting a career-best thirteen home runs with a 12.0% strikeout rate as a sophomore in 2025, his 2026 season started slowly with ankle and hamstring issues but he wasted no time once he got back. Across 36 games, a career-low, he demolished opposing pitching to the tune of a .417/.491/.646 line and a microscopic 8.7% strikeout rate for the Cardinals. That means after three years in Louisville, he has 24 home runs to his name alongside a blistering .358/.438/.585 slash line and just a 10.4% strikeout rate that he has maintained across a 146 game sample. Few pitchers have found a reliable formula to get him out. Working from a compact setup, Rose has a gashing right handed swing that has proven extremely accurate and always seems to find the barrel. He gets to balls all over the zone and hits them hard, although with his mechanics, that often means low line drives and sizzling hot shots through the hole rather than fly balls over the fence. He's all muscle at 6'1", 200 pounds, and his power to this point has come more from strength than from bat speed. The Royals hope that as he puts together a few fully healthy seasons in their system, he'll get some of that bat speed back and start to bump up what were fringy exit velocities in 2026. Swing changes will then in turn help him tap at least 15-20 home run power, if not more if he can find a way to translate that strength into higher top-end exit velocities off the bat. While he can make so much contact that it eats into his walk rates, he should hit for high batting averages to ensure he's on base plenty. A converted catcher, the Chicago native has played outfield at Louisville and may end up in left field given his average overall defensive skill set. The Royals drafted him as a center fielder with hopes that his above average speed can be refined just enough to make it work, but ultimately as a right handed bat the pressure will be on his offensive performance if he ultimately slides back to a corner.
CBA-30: RHP Taylor Rabe, Mississippi
Slot value: $3.19 million. Signing bonus: $3.2 million ($7,000 above slot value).
My rank: #36. MLB Pipeline: #40. ESPN: #48.
This is nice value here for the Royals, who got one of the best college pitchers in the country for essentially slot value at pick #30 despite rumors he could be bound for the 20's. Taylor Rabe missed his freshman season at Ole Miss with Tommy John surgery, then came back as a reliever in 2025 but didn't turn many heads with just eight strikeouts against 22 hits and 15 runs allowed in 16.1 innings. 2026, however, was a different story as he pushed his way from the bullpen into the rotation and at one point struck out 27 batters in 12 innings over a two start stretch against Texas A&M and Alabama in May. Rabe isn't your standard SEC ace. The fastball is truly explosive, sitting in the mid to upper 90's and touching triple digits at peak while playing up further with run and ride. He works between a cutter and a slider to change pace, tightening it into the former in the upper 80's or stretching it out into the latter in the mid 80's. Both miss bats and do a great job keeping hitters off the star of the show, his fastball. At this point, he doesn't show much of a changeup and will need to develop one more or less from scratch in pro ball. Rabe's arsenal is not fully developed, so it will be interesting to see how the Royals find more velocity separation and vertical action out of what is currently a power toolkit. The 6'5" righty still shows projection and has pounded the strike zone in Oxford, running a puny 4.4% walk rate over his two seasons that would portend to plus control, and he's working on refining his spots within the zone as well. There is a little bit of funk in the delivery, including some stabbing action in the back, but with his excellent control and the added bonus of hiding the ball well from hitters, it's a net positive. If the South Carolina native can develop the softer half of his arsenal a little further, he has mid-rotation upside.
2-56: RHP Jack Slightom, Lyons Township HS [IL]
Slot value: $1.72 million. Signing bonus: $3 million ($1.28 million above slot value).
My rank: #73. MLB Pipeline: #89. ESPN: #60.
Cold weather arms can sneak up on you, and that's exactly what Jack Slightom was doing during his senior year up in the Chicago suburbs as he pushed his stock higher and higher and higher while many outside of the industry were slow to take notice. Ultimately, his $3 million signing bonus was just over the value of the #33 pick, in practice making him a near first round-quality talent as Kansas City pried him from a Cincinnati commitment. He's an excellent athlete who also starred as a quarterback in high school, and strength gains during his senior year pushed his fastball way up from the upper 80's to the mid 90's, now touching 98 with running action. Slightom is showing better feel for his short, tight slider, which is not a wipeout pitch yet but could get there quickly as he settles into pro ball. He didn't need his changeup against Chicago area high school competition, but scouts have been quick to point out his present feel and its future potential when they have gotten glimpses of it. He has a chance for three above average or better pitches already, and most evaluators agree he's just scratching the surface. The 6'5" righty is already physical and shows plenty of further projection, leading to hope that he could tick closer and closer to triple digits in the future while he adds finish to his slider and incorporates his changeup more often. It's an easy three quarters delivery, though his arm can be late at times, and even if he's still finding consistency with his command, the delivery and athleticism should get him to average or better in that regard in time. He carries tremendous upside and is a whole lot closer to realizing that potential than he was a year ago, leading the Royals to dump near-first round money into a pitcher they'd like to see starting some Opening Days in the future.
3-91: LHP Maxx Yehl, West Virginia
Slot value: $872,900. Signing bonus: $870,400 ($2,500 below slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: #217. ESPN: #161.
One of the better senior signs in the country, this is probably earlier than most expected Maxx Yehl to go especially given he signed for slot value. Yehl spent the first two years of his career at West Virginia in the bullpen, where he showed promise but also struggled a bit with command, walking 13.1% over that stretch. He missed the 2025 season with Tommy John surgery then came out guns blazing in 2026, winning Big 12 Pitcher of the Year honors with a 2.13 ERA and a sharp 112/26 strikeout to walk ratio across 97 innings, the latter of which was good for eleventh most in Division I. Yehl sits in the low 90's and touches 96 with his fastball, which shows average movement but plays up with difficult angle and good extension. His slider gets nice dive across the plate and was missing more bats in 2026, looking like an above average pitch, while he can mix a curveball and changeup in there as well. The 6'6" lefty is fully developed physically, carrying 235 pounds already on his big frame, looking the part of a durable back-end starting pitcher. He didn't maintain his stuff deep into the 2026 season, which was understandable given his high workload (97 innings over 18 starts) coming off a year of no pitching in 2025. With his size, he doesn't need to expend too much effort to get down the mound and whip the ball across his body, angle which helps not only his fastball but his slider play up as well in addition to hiding the ball effectively. Yehl's command is now above average and further points to that back-end starter profile. He lacks the upside of Taylor Rabe and Jack Slightom but as a 22 year old redshirt junior, he's probably just as close to the big leagues as Rabe taken 61 picks earlier.
4-119: OF Dominic Battista, Oswego East HS [IL]
Slot value: $651,500. Signing bonus: $797,500 ($146,000 above slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: unranked. ESPN: unranked.
Digging deeper to find more of a sleeper prospect in Dominic Battista, the Royals went a bit over slot here in the fourth round and gave him a late third round bonus (roughly pick #98 value) to sign away from an Illinois-Chicago commitment. He has been plugging away up in the Chicago suburbs with consistent performance and showed well at the MLB Draft Combine in June to quietly push his stock up. Battista has a really clean left handed swing built for line drives, and it shouldn't take much to get him elevating the ball more in pro ball. He was ripping line drives with impressive force at the Combine, and as he adds strength to his lean 6'2" frame, he should grow into average or better power at maturity. If you believe in the hit tool, and the Royals certainly do, that's a very well-rounded hitter at maturity. Battista is a good athlete with plus speed which Kansas City would love to see in center field, where his above average arm could make him a well-rounded defender as well. There's a chance he moves to a corner outfield spot, where he should be above average and the Royals still believe he'll hit enough to hold down an every day role. Battista was trending up when the draft rolled around which would make this a reasonable, six figure investment in a prep demographic that often commands seven figures for those with the highest upside. He has a chance to put up 20-20 seasons while playing center field if he reaches his ceiling.
5-151: LHP Ethan McElvain, Arkansas
Slot value: $476,900. Signing bonus: $474,400 ($2,500 below slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: #144. ESPN: unranked.
Ethan McElvain has taken a bit of a winding road to pro ball but he's now ready to jump in full throttle. A famous pitching prospect out of the Nashville-area prep ranks in 2023, he held firm in his local commitment to Vanderbilt and spent two years with the Commodores, bouncing between the bullpen and the rotation but more than doubling his ERA from 2024 (3.24) to 2025 (7.24). He followed the Cam Kozeal route and transferred to Arkansas, where he pitched purely in relief until his final outing of the season and found much more success with a 1.88 ERA and a 34.4% strikeout rate. It seems McElvain has found his identity in the bullpen. He pitches primarily off his power fastball, sitting in the mid 90's in short stints and touching 98 with riding life to chew up bats. In the bullpen, he focused much more heavily on a hard cutter around 90, slowing hitters down just enough and rarely allowing hard contact. He has shown a truer slider and curveball in the past as a starter, but he doesn't use them much as a reliever. McElvain cut his walk rate significantly from 19.3% in 2025 down to 8.1% in 2026, still looking fringy in the command sense but far, far improved. He works off a crossfire delivery that hides the ball well and has gotten much more balanced in 2026, helping him profile much better as a pro reliever. The 6'4" lefty carries 250 pounds on his big frame and looks the part, but is almost certainly a reliever in pro ball given the shaky command and lack of anything soft. He'll likely be confined to short, one inning stints in pro ball unless he can lengthen that arsenal a bit, otherwise he'll come in for a few batters at a time and just blow them away with the fastball/cutter mix. McElvain's older brother, Chris, spent the past four seasons in the Blue Jays organization an reached AA in 2026.
7-209: RHP Dylan Vigue, Georgia
Slot value: $289,900. Signing bonus: $622,500 ($332,600 above slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: #201. ESPN: unranked.
It's uncommon to see a 22 year old sign for more than double his slot value, but that's what happened here for Dylan Vigue, who got fourth round money here in the seventh. Vigue, like McElvain, has taken a winding road. Many New England scouts had his name circled during the 2023 high school season, where he flashed huge stuff as a 19 year old senior but wasn't complete enough yet as a pitcher for teams to sign him away from a Michigan commitment. He continued to flash that big stuff in Ann Arbor, where he worked mostly as a starter but also saw a handful of appearances out of the bullpen to mixed success. Transferring to Georgia in 2026, he did take a step forward but remains enigmatic. Vigue sits in the low to mid 90's and touches 98 with his power sinker, showing a ton of running action as well to really stay off barrels and out of the air. He complements it with a nasty, plus slider in the mid 80's with sharp, late bite, certainly one of the better breaking balls you'll find outside of the top couple of rounds. Those two pitches helped him rack up a solid 27.5% strikeout rate in 2026 even as he jumped from Big Ten to SEC competition, and I have a hard time seeing pro hitters handle them consistently as well. There is a less used cutter and changeup in the mix, but they'll need more refinement and trust before he uses them with any regularity in pro ball. Vigue has primarily worked as a starter thus far and given the investment, the Royals may want to develop him that way, but he has a long way to go in that regard. The 6'3" righty has a relatively easy, low three quarters delivery but he has struggled to repeat his release point and still walked 12.9% in 2026, pointing to below average command. He is most likely a reliever, where his sinker/slider combination could really eat in short stints and make him a high leverage option. Should he make it as a starter, it will be because he found much more feel for soft stuff to throw off hitters' timing, not just their horizontal perception.
9-269: SS Camden Johnson, Oklahoma
Slot value: $207,900. Signing bonus: $397,500 ($189,600 above slot value).
My rank: #110. MLB Pipeline: #116. ESPN: #238.
This is a nice find for Kansas City, getting a top five round-caliber talent in the ninth round for early sixth round money. He began his career at Wichita State, where he hit .326 and .325 in his two seasons and then an impressive .292 in the Cape Cod League over the summer. Transferring to Oklahoma for his junior year, he hit more than twice has many home runs (9) as he hit in two years in Wichita (4) while stealing 31 bases. He takes gashing left handed swings but learned to turn on the ball for a little more loft in 2026, maximizing his below average power to help it play up to fringy in games. He'll probably go back to below average with wood bats in pro ball, likely topping out around 5-10 home runs per season. He made lots of contact at Wichita State and ran a low 16.4% strikeout rate on the Cape, though that strikeout rate did rise to 23.6% in 2026 as he traded some contact for power. Johnson rises to the competition and ripped SEC weekend pitching (.350/.404/.593), continuing a trend of playing up to the competition wherever he goes. Drafted as a shortstop, the San Antonio-area product played third base at Oklahoma and looks average there, making shortstop a stretch. He has some arm strength but with plus-plus speed, he may provide more value in center field where he can really show off his elite wheels. In that case there is a bit of Jacob Young in this profile, albeit from the left side of the plate. He profiles as a fourth outfielder or super utility type with plenty of speed and some on-base ability.
15-449: LHP Madden Clement, Virginia Tech
Slot value: up to $150,000. Signing bonus: $172,500 ($22,500 against bonus pool).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: unranked. ESPN: unranked.
The Royals slowly unloaded the rest of their bonus pool over the back half of the draft, handing out slightly-over-slot bonuses to four different draftees. One of those was Madden Clement, son of former MLB pitcher Matt Clement who made over 200 starts for the Padres, Marlins, Cubs, and Red Sox in the late 90's and early 2000's and made an All Star team with the latter in 2005. Madden pitched three years at Virginia Tech, though injuries limited him to just 38 total innings including just 17 over the last two seasons. He made up for some lost time with four appearances in the Cape Cod League just before the draft, where he allowed too much traffic on the bases but impressed with a 31% strikeout rate. Clement works with a low 90's fastball that is still creeping back up after surgery, with hopes that he can pitch closer to the mid 90's at full health. He adds a downer curveball and a solid changeup, making for a three pitch mix that the Hokies' coaching staff long envisioned in their rotation if he could get healthy. With an athletic 6'3" frame and the physicality to start, he comes with upside if his stuff blooms with health in pro ball. Durability is a concern if the injuries continue to nag, which would relegate him to the bullpen where he could add that tick of velocity which will be necessary to succeed in pro ball.
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