Royals slide in MLB Draft Lottery while AL Central rivals improve positioning

Any other year, the Kansas City Royals would have automatically received the No. 5 pick in next summer’s Major League Baseball Draft. Instead, they went into MLB’s inaugural draft lottery with the fifth-best odds of receiving the first overall pick and came away with the No. 8 pick.

Not only were the Royals not holding onto a winning lottery ticket, but it turned out that they slipped to a lower position than projected while a pair of AL Central rivals leapfrogged them despite having finished with better records.

Perhaps this was cosmic retribution for the Royals making the rare trade involving a draft pick this past year? Either way, the preference of executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo is for his club to be a playoff team and not involved in the draft lottery.

“You know that you could be in a position like we were in where you slide down, but you’re optimistic that we had a 10-percent chance to get the first pick,” Picollo said. “This year it didn’t work out. I would hope, one, to not be in that. But I hope over the coming years it goes the other way.

“I’m disappointed right now, but I’m kind of indifferent just with that. It’s out of our control. It’s a total lottery. However it was decided to try to curb tanking. It is what it is, and we’ve just got to live with it.”

Had draft position been determined by team’s final records, the Royals (65-97) would have had the fifth overall pick in next summer’s draft, while the Detroit Tigers (66-96) would have held the sixth pick and the Minnesota Twins (78-84) would have drafted 13th.

Instead the Tigers moved up to the No. 3 overall pick and the Twins moved up to the No. 5 pick by virtue of the lottery.

The Royals have selected in the top 10 of the MLB Draft in each of the previous four years.

In 2019, they picked national high school player of the year Bobby Witt Jr. with the No. 2 overall pick. Witt made his major-league debut this year, and he was named the club’s Player of the Year by the KC Chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The following year, they selected Texas A&M left-handed pitcher Asa Lacy with the No. 4 overall pick.

In 2021, they tapped high school left-hander Frankie Mozzicato out of Connecticut with the No. 7 overall selection.

Baseball America ranks Lacy the 10th-best prospect in the Royals system, while Mozzicato ranks No. 11.

This summer, the Royals took Virginia Tech outfielder Gavin Cross with the No. 9 pick. Baseball America currently ranks Cross at the second-best prospect in the Royals farm system.