One fun fact about each Kansas City Royals selection in the 2026 MLB Draft
Overwhelmed by having to learn about 21 players joining the Kansas City Royals organization following the 2026 MLB Draft?
Don’t fret, The Star will get you one step closer. And it’s not just about baseball, either, though you can check out our pick tracker from Day 2 of the event.
One Royals draft pick plays the harmonica. Another was a former member of a skateboard crew. And one, believe it or not, started his own apparel brand.
Want to know more? Well, we’ve got you covered.
We scoured the internet, made dozens of phone calls to teammates, family members and friends, and pestered agents for fun facts about each of the Royals’ selections, starting with the team’s top selection.
Round 1, pick No. 6 overall: Zion Rose, OF, Louisville
The Royals spent their top draft asset on Rose, selecting him with the 6th overall pick, and he, too, knows a little something about managing capital.
Rose didn’t get to play his freshman season at Brother Rice High School in Chicago because of COVID-19, so he spent some of his spare time day-trading online. He once said if baseball didn’t work out, he’d want to be a stockbroker.
Round 1, No. 30 overall: Taylor Rabe, RHP, Ole Miss
The farm system’s newest right-handed pitching prospect draws some of his sports inspiration from the football field. Rabe’s favorite athlete growing up was former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow, with the Ole Miss pitcher even dressing as Tebow for Halloween as a kid, complete with shoulder pads and Tebow’s signature face paint.
Round 2, No. 56 overall: Jack Slightom, RHP, Lyons Township (Illinois) High School
Slightom split time between the baseball and football fields during his high school career. When he wasn’t pitching, Slightom was the quarterback and captain of the Lyons Township football team, leading his school to the 8A state playoffs as a senior.
Slightom would sometimes step onto the pitcher’s mound and go under center on back-to-back days, and his 63.6% completion percentage is the second-highest in school history.
Round 3, No. 91 overall: Maxx Yehl, LHP, West Virginia
Throughout his college career, Yehl worked to strengthen his faith and connection with God, and it became increasingly important to him after he missed his sophomore season due to a torn UCL. In June, he got baptized on West Virginia’s football field.
Round 4, No. 119 overall: Dominic Battista, OF, Oswego East (Illinois) HS
When Battista isn’t hitting home runs, he’s hitting high notes. Last year, he picked up the harmonica for the first time, randomly, and discovered that he was naturally pretty good at it.
Battista is a big fan of country music and wanted to learn how to play the classic song “Broken Window Serenade” by Whiskey Myers. He finds that the harmonica relaxes him and allows him an escape from baseball when he needs it.
Round 5, No. 151 overall: Ethan McElvain, LHP, Arkansas
When McElvain isn’t on the pitcher’s mound or in the bullpen, he can be found in the great outdoors. The Arkansas southpaw enjoys fishing and hunting in his free time, even advertising personalized duck calls on his Instagram page.
When McElvain transferred from Vanderbilt to Arkansas, it reunited him with a former teammate, fishing buddy, and third-round MLB draft pick, Camden Kozeal, who led several fishing expeditions during their final college season.
Round 6, No. 180 overall: Justin LeGuernic, LHP, Clemson
LeGuernic is not only a baseball player, but a businessman. During his sophomore season, he and fellow pitcher Aidan Knaak — who the Brewers selected in the fifth round of the draft — created the first-ever independent student-athlete-owned apparel Brand, “Cardiak Cats.”
Knaak and LeGuernic came up with the brand idea on a road trip. They designed the hats themselves and named them after the theme of the Tigers’ season, during which the team notched numerous comeback victories.
Round 7, No. 209 overall: Dylan Vigue, RHP, Georgia
When Vigue isn’t serving up strikes to hitters on the mound, he is serving plates in the kitchen. Vigue is a self-described breakfast specialist and says his go-to dishes are omelets and bacon, egg and cheese croissants.
Outside of the most important meal of the day, Vigue’s favorite restaurant is Lefty’s Cheesesteak, a local staple at his previous college stop at Michigan, where he pitched for two seasons before transferring to Georgia.
Round 8, No. 239 overall: LHP Hunter Possehl, Florida Gulf Coast
Possehl took a nontraditional route compared to his peers. In high school, the 6-8, 240-pound lefty only pitched two innings. He reached this point with help from the same pitching staff at Florida Gulf Coast that developed 2024 Cy Young and Gold Glove winner Chris Sale.
Round 9, No. 269 overall: Camden Johnson, 3B, Oklahoma
Camden Johnson isn’t the only member of his family to reach the highest levels of sports. The recent College World Series champion comes from an athletic family.
Camden’s father, Keith, played rugby at Texas Tech; his uncle, Mark Johnson, earned the 1984 National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete Award while attending Northwestern State; and one of his other uncles, Joe Driskill, played in the NFL in the ‘60s and is inducted into the University of Louisiana-Monroe’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
Round 10, No. 299 overall: Grant Fontenot, RHP, LSU
If Fontenot wasn’t delivering fastballs, he could be pulling off kick-flips.
In 2014, when Fontenot was 11 years old, he was a member of the “Airborne Skate Crew” — a group of 11 riders who showed off their skills on Instagram. Fontenot’s board had the word “enjoy” on the belly in rainbow letters.
Round 11, No. 329 overall: Tanner Griffith, OF, St. Mary’s College
When Griffith is on the field, he specializes in collecting outs; when he’s off the field, he specializes in collecting kicks.
Griffith says he started collecting shoes during his sophomore year of high school and has come to love the exercise. His favorite shoes are Nike Dunks and Yeezys. His dream shoe is the Nike Air Mag, one of the holy grails for sneakerheads, which can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000.
Round 12, No. 359 overall: Lance Hartley, RHP, College of Central Florida
If Hartley opts to sign with the Royals and makes his way to the clubhouse, he’ll not only accomplish his lifelong dream of playing in the majors but also meet someone he watched on the way. The right-handed pitcher cited Royals catcher, captain and 2015 World Series MVP Salvador Perez as his favorite player.
Round 13, No. 389 overall: Dalton Hill, RHP, Nicholls State
The summer before Hill began his pitching career at Nicholls, the relief pitcher took a trip to Belize. But it wasn’t a vacation; Hill and other members of J:17 youth ministries participated in a weeklong mission trip to help clean and repair local schools and homes in the Central American country.
Round 14, No. 419 overall: Banks Wickersham, C, Fort Dorchester (South Carolina) HS
When Wickersham isn’t hitting, catching or throwing a baseball, the Fort Dorchester High School standout can be found at a lake or pond in South Carolina catching fish. Wickersham says he fishes once a week, often with friends, to relax when he’s not playing one of the three high school sports he participated in.
In his own words: “Fishing is more relaxing than always putting that work in on the field”
Round 15, No. 449 overall: Madden Clement, RHP, Virginia Tech
Madden Clement is the second Clement to hear his name called in the MLB Draft. His father and fellow right-handed pitcher Matt Clement was drafted in the third round of the 1993 draft by the San Diego Padres and accumulated 238 starts, 87 wins and 1,217 strikeouts in his eight-year, four-team professional career.
Round 16, No. 479 overall: Dylan Alonso, RHP, Troy
Many MLB pitchers are secretive about their tools of the trade. But Alonso is willing to pass on the knowledge that made him a successful college pitcher through “Alonso Velocity Lab”, an app/website created by the Alonso to give up-and-coming pitchers the resources they need to get recruited at the college level.
For $25 a month, athletes get access to a velocity and strength tracker, a personalized NCAA timeline to track improvement and an AI device that helps write recruiting emails to send to college coaches. For $50 a month, users have access to Alonso’s weekly throwing and workout program, and for $350 a month, customers get weekly one-on-one video coaching sessions from Alonso himself.
Round 17, No. 509 overall: Richie Roman, RHP, Houston
If Roman weren’t reeling in batters with sinkers, he’d be helping fishers reel in their prey with bait. Roman grew up surrounded by water in Corpus Christi, Texas, and has said that if he weren’t a baseball player, his dream job would be a fishing guide.
Round 18, No. 539 overall: Cooper Corkrean, LHP, New Mexico
One of Corkrean’s hobbies off the baseball field is to hunt. The Katy, Texas, native has hunted everything from deer to alligator and posts pictures of his trophies on Instagram. The lefty developed a passion for hunting in 2023 while attending Galveston Community College and says that hunting and fishing are activities he uses to clear his mind.
Round 19, Pick No. 569: Hudson DeVaughn, RHP, Mooresville (Indiana) HS
DeVaughn finished his high school career as the fifth-ranked player in Indiana, according to Perfect Game, before committing to play at the University of Alabama. During his rise to prominence, he made sure to give back to the community. For the last few years, he’s given hitting and pitching lessons to youth at his father’s indoor facility in Mooresville, Indiana.
Round 20, No. 599 overall: Riley McDonald, RHP, State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota
McDonald’s main focus is sitting down batters, but he also loves sitting in nature with his father and hunting. The Florida native got his first rifle at 8 and his first kill at 9. His travel ball coach vividly remembers McDonald’s father, who was his assistant coach, leaving tournaments to plant corn and bait deer at their cabin in Georgia.
This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 6:30 AM with the headline "One fun fact about each Kansas City Royals selection in the 2026 MLB Draft."
