Royals sign their entire draft class as well as seven undrafted free agents
The Kansas City Royals formally announced the signing of a 13-player rookie class headed by No. 4 overall draft pick and highly touted Texas A&M left-handed pitcher Asa Lacy Tuesday afternoon.
The Royals signed all six of their 2020 draft picks as well as seven undrafted free agents who were not selected in this year’s abbreviated five-round draft.
Baylor shortstop Nick Loftin (No. 32 overall), De La Salle Institute (Ill.) right-handed pitcher Ben Hernandez (No 41), Alabama outfielder Tyler Gentry (No. 76), Oregon State left-handed pitcher Christian Chamberlain (No. 105) and Eastern Illinois right-handed pitcher Will Klein (No. 135) joined Lacy as draft picks who agreed to terms with the club.
Terms of the contracts were not announced, but MLB.com reported that Loftin received a $3 million signing bonus — above the slot value of the 32nd pick ($2.26 million).
This year’s shortened draft, from 40 rounds down to five, left behind hundreds of undrafted free agents who would’ve likely been selected in previous years. MLB leveled the playing field as teams bid to sign those free agents by limiting their signing bonuses to $20,000.
Before the undrafted free-agent signing period, Royals assistant scouting director Danny Ontiveros spoke confidently about the club’s ability to attract and sign top-level players on the undrafted free-agent market, saying, “I tell you where I think we will have an advantage with these kids that do want to sign is the relationships our scouts had with these guys.”
Ontiveros’ comments have largely proven prescient.
The Royals officially announced the signing of seven undrafted free agents, including Washington State left-handed pitcher AJ Block, Georgia outfielder Tucker Bradley, Arkansas-Little Rock catcher Kale Emshoff, LSU catcher Saul Garza, Texas Tech right-handed pitcher John McMillon, Michigan infielder Matt Schmidt and Tennessee right-handed pitcher Chase Wallace.
Baseball America ranked Emshoff as the top undrafted free-agent signing in baseball and the Royals had signed five top-20 players through Monday, including Emshoff (No. 1), Bradley (No. 8), McMillon (No. 11), Garza (No. 14) and Wallace (No. 19).
In 17 games before the coronavirus put an end to the season, Emshoff hit .417, slugged .800 with a .527 on-base percentage and blasted a Sun Belt Conference-best seven home runs.
Bradley batted .397 with six home runs, 23 RBIs and eight stolen bases in 18 games for Georgia.
McMillon, a two-way player in his first two collegiate seasons, pitched in relief as a junior and senior at Texas Tech. This season, he tossed 9 1/3 innings (seven games) and struck out 20 batters (19.3 K/9). His fastball reaches 100 mph.
Garza, who the Royals selected in the 32nd round of the 2019 MLB draft, chose to go back to LSU last year. This season, he led the team with three home runs in 14 games while batting batting .229 with 12 RBIs and nine runs scored.
Wallace moved from the Tennessee bullpen into the starting rotation this year, posting a 3.50 ERA with 18 strikeouts, seven walks and a .194 opponent’s batting average in four starts (18 innings).
Restocking continues
The Royals have been restocking their minor-league pitching depth for the past few years. They’ve selected 56 pitchers in the last three drafts, including their first five picks in the 2018 draft as well as four of their six picks in this year’s shortened draft.
In pursuit of the franchise’s first championship in 30 years, which they captured in 2015, they used a lot of minor-league capital to supplement their major-league roster in 2014 and 2015. That included trading away 11 minor-league pitchers.
“We had to move some guys and, truthfully, some guys didn’t pan out,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said of their pitching depth. “But we really feel the only way to tilt the field in our favor is to have elite starting pitching. Of course, we want to put together a championship pitching staff one through thirteen. Asa is potentially a huge part of that, as well as others — even those that don’t get a lot of attention and a lot of notoriety.
“We need several in the organization just to get a few to the major leagues that can help us win a championship. Adding Asa and others has certainly solidified us and put us in a position that we feel really good about.”
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 5:21 PM with the headline "Royals sign their entire draft class as well as seven undrafted free agents."
