The Kansas City Royals entered the 2022 season with a bona fide top-5 farm system in all of baseball. Headlined by Bobby Witt Jr., the system was loaded at the top with MJ Melendez, Vinnie Pasquantino, Nick Pratto, and the hope for a healthy Asa Lacy. As we enter the All-Star Break, eight of the Royals top-20 prospects from our preseason rankings have seen big league time and there’s a slim chance none of them will be on our midseason list. Needless to say there will be a massive shake up on our midseason list compared to preseason, so I wanted to take a quick look at some guys who will be moving up or down compared to where they were in January. The beginnings of our midseason top-50 will begin after the trade deadline.
Risers
- Tyler Gentry, OF
- Josh tried to tell us all on the podcast that Gentry would be a top-20 prospect by the end of the year, but I don’t think even he maybe realized that Gentry would be a lock for the top-10 by midseason. Gentry has been without a doubt the best hitter in the organization all year and in a system that is about to graduate a bunch of its best prospects, it’s fantastic to have guys like Gentry filling in. The weird thing about Gentry is how remarkably better he’s been at AA compared to High-A, but I’m not going to get too much into that just yet. For now, just be aware that Gentry is a legitimate big league prospect and perhaps the right fielder of the future.
- River Town, OF
- My dumb ass accidentally left Town off of our “Honorable Mention” list this preseason and boy has he made me look bad for that. Town has been one of the Royals most productive hitters in the first half of the minor league season and has carried the Columbia Fireflies offense. His 144 wRC+ landed him on our “First Half All-Star” team in LF and, assuming he makes his way to High-A at some point this week, Town has a chance to crack our top-30 by the offseason.
- Michael Massey, 2B
- If Massey is still with the big league club on Friday we’ll probably leave him off of our midseason list, unfortunately I just don’t think it’ll happen for him that quickly. It’s hard for someone that we ranked at #16 preseason to be considered a riser by midseason, but that’s exactly what Massey has accomplished. I’d guess he’s top-5 but Pratto being in Omaha, the addition of Cross…it’s not a guarantee just yet.
- Gavin Cross, OF
- Yeah this is cheating but this is supposed to be more of an inventory than anything else, so…
- Cayden Wallace, 3B
- See above…
- Luca Tresh, C
- We had Tresh at #43 preseason and he has quietly been one of the best hitters in the system at High-A this year. He’s still striking out more than you’d like to see, but he’s taking walks, hitting for power, and he’s still really good behind home plate. I wouldn’t be shocked if some of the guys voted him top-20.
- Nate Eaton, UTIL
- Eaton cracked our top-30 for the first time this offseason and he’s now got an outside chance at our top-10. I doubt he gets that far, but he looked pretty good in CF in Toronto and his bat just keeps improving.
- Carter Jensen, C
- Jensen came in at #26 on our preseason top-50 and has a chance to wind up in our top-10 at midseason. He’s still a 19-year old catcher in Low-A, so there’s a way to go yet, but he’s been pretty damn good this year.
- Diego Hernandez, CF
- Diego Hernandez has a chance to go from our preseason Honorable Mentions to midseason top-15. He’s a legitimately plus defender in CF, he runs like a bat out of hell, and he’s starting to hit the ball with more authority than we’ve ever seen from him. He needs to continue to gain weight and muscle, but he’s got a shot to be a semi-impactful big leaguer if he keeps developing like this.
- Noah Cameron, LHP
- Another guy I just forgot to add to the Honorable Mentions list, Cameron, who is recovering from Tommy John Surgery and has missed some time on the IL this season, has looked incredible when he’s been on the mound. He struck out 12 batters in four innings in his High-A debut and looks like a legitimate big league starting pitching prospect.
Tumblers
- Erick Pena, OF
- Pena has had a disastrous 2022 campaign and looks like a long shot to regain his top prospect status at the moment. The tools are still very evident. He plays a decent CF, he runs well, and his raw power is great for a 19-year old. He just looks to have no kind of approach at the plate at times and his hit tool is suspect at best. Still, the tools are worth dreaming on and he won’t tumble all the way out of our top-30…yet…but Drew Saylor is gonna have to work some magic here.
- Darryl Collins, OF
- Darryl Collins’ BB/K ratio is somehow even better than it was last season, but he’s now a 20-year old in Low-A who is actually on the development list at the moment. We know the raw power is in there somewhere. Collins has flashed excellent max exit velocities in the past and has hit some mammoth home runs. He just does not get to it consistently at all and had zero home runs in 45 games in Columbia to start the season. He also probably won’t fall out of our top-30 just yet, but it would be hard to justify him being in our top-15 like he was preseason. I could not have been higher on this kid and I feel kind of bad for selling Royals fans a bag of false goods. I still love him and I still think the ceiling on the kid is sky-high…he just doesn’t have Erick Pena’s tools to fall back on and he’s not even playing right now.
- Omar Hernandez, C
- Sebastian Rivero Jr. is hitting .215 in his second round at Low-A this season, and although he’s a wizard behind home plate, he also has zero home runs in 56 games with Columbia. We had him #29 preseason and while I think the defense justifies it, he has shown zero signs of ever being able to hit enough to be a big leaguer just yet.
- Zach Haake, RHP
- Haake just hasn’t been able to put anything together in the Royals system and may never reach the big leagues at this point. He’s a 25-year old reliever in AA with a 5.93 ERA. He needs some help with his command and refining his fastball shape, and I just don’t know if he’s going to get that in this system. We had him #39 preseason, so it’s not like he had far to tumble, but he’s looking like a guy that may not even crack the top-50 at this rate.
Royals Farm Report 