With the Kansas City Royals having potentially 7 of the top 100 picks in next June’s draft (currently own numbers 18, 31, 33, 39, 58, and 93) we’re going to be doing a ton of draft coverage here at Royals Farm Report. Part of our draft coverage will include draft targets for the Royals for the upcoming draft.

When you think of the top players going into the MLB draft, you think of players like Steven Gingery, Brady Singer, Alec Bohm and Travis Swaggerty but you might not realize the potential stars that come from the lower levels of college baseball and this is where the NAIA Baseball Player of the Year Chris Acosta-Tapia comes in.

Tapia had a stellar year last year starting 62 game for the Eagles hitting a .441 average in 238 AB’s, 105 hits, 89 runs, 27 doubles, 24 HR’s, 85 RBI’s, 208 TB, .874 SLG%, 28 BB, 41 SO, and 12 SB in 16 attempts. He lead the NAIA D1 in doubles, total bases, runs scored and was second in the NAIA D1 hits, slugging percentage and total bases per game.

Tapia obviously has the skills to just maul baseballs but he also has the finesse skills to play the field as well as he had a .960 fielding percentage with 119 putouts.

As you can see in the video above, he has quick hands and hits bullets. You can almost guarantee he will get a clutch hit when he comes to the plate and will come through for his team.

This is what Baseball America said about Tapia in their 2018 NAIA Preview “The top player in NAIA baseball last year could be a solid senior sign this year thanks to above-average speed and a lengthy track record of productivity at the plate.”

The NAIA usually doesn’t get much love out of the draft with only 39 players going in the 2016 MLB draft. I would say that Tapia could go in the 20th-30th round for the Royals which i highly believe he could. If Tapia could work on getting a couple more stolen bases this year to 15-20, his draft stock could easily rise even more since he is already a solid hitter.