Josh Dye may be one of the better pitchers in the Royals farm system that nobody’s heard about. Twenty-two year old left hander Josh Dye standing, 6’ 5” and 180 lbs., was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 23rd round out of Florida Gulf Coast University in the 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft, and was signed to a $60,000 signing bonus.

Dye’s delivery is a little herky jerky with a lower arm slot. Dye is not overpowering as his fastball only sits in the upper 80s, but he features a decent slider that he throws at 78-81 MPH and an above average changeup that also sits 78-81.

After being drafted Dye was sent to rookie league Burlington where he appeared in eleven games and made seven starts posting a 4.54 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP while striking out 34 batters to only 5 walks in 35.2 innings. Dye may have been a little unlucky considering his .373 BABIP, his 3.96 FIP and 3.57 xFIP say he pitched better than his ERA suggests. Dye did make one start at High-A Wilmington where he pitched five innings giving up only one run and striking out six.

Josh Dye has burst onto the scene to start 2019 as a full time reliever and was excellent out of the Lexington Legends bullpen. He made fourteen relief appearances and in 26.2 innings he pitched to a 3.38 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and a 1.73 FIP, and struck out a whopping 43 batters while only walking 6. While his ERA isn’t that impressively low his peripheral numbers are good and again his .377 BABIP may help to explain his ERA being a little high. Dye had some lopsided lefty/righty splits this year while at Lexington, lefties were hitting a meager .129 off him while righties hit .270. That may be something to keep an eye on going forward.

On May 30th Josh Dye was given a well deserved promotion to High-A Wilmington. Since being promoted Dye has appeared in three games tossing 5.2 scoreless innings allowing just one hit while striking out five, all though he has walked three batters.

Dye right now uses movement and deception to carve up hitters, but as he moves up through the Royals farm system and hopefully to the major leagues he may need to find some extra velocity on his fastball. If Josh does increase his fastball velocity I firmly believe he can become a solid major league pitcher. Josh Dye will be a guy to keep an eye on going forward.

Photo Credits: FGCU Baseball