Earlier this week, a look at the updated Royals Top Prospects for 2025 dropped. Alongside the new list, it’s a great chance to answer questions or comments received from X. It’s one of my favorite elements of dropping any new list simply because it gives a chance to give more insight behind some of the changes that can’t always be taken from a simple Top 30. If you missed a chance to drop any questions, please use our comment section at the bottom of this post for anything you’d like to comment on!

The 2021 draft is often characterized by the slow — at best — development of first-round pick, Frank Mozzicato. The Royals selected Mozzicato seventh overall, passing on other options including Brady House, Kumar Rocker, and Andrew Painter. The MLB Draft is always “Hindsight, 20-20,” so it’s never entirely fair to evaluate a draft in that manner. The pick itself may not pan out, but what it allowed the Royals to do later is working well. MLB Teams are given a draft bonus pool to use in each draft. That draft capital is the sum of the team’s slot values for each of their picks in the first ten rounds.

Kansas City entered the 2021 Draft with just the tenth-largest bonus pool at $10,917,700. The seventh pick’s slot value was nearly half that at $5.43m. Mozzicato signed under that slot value for $3.55 million, saving the Royals almost $2 million for use in the rest of their draft class. Take a look at some of the draft’s later selections and their signing bonuses:

• Second Round: RHP Ben Kudrna ($3 million, $1.27 million over slot value)
• Third Round: C Carter Jensen ($1.1 million, $307,000 over slot value)
• Fourth Round: RHP Shane Panzini ($997,500, $459,300 over slot value)
• Fifth Round: RHP Eric Cerantola ($500,000, $102,000 over slot value)
• 11th Round: INF Brennon McNair ($347,500, $222,500 against bonus pool)
• 17th Round: C Luca Tresh ($423,000, $298,000 against bonus pool)

Would the 2024 Royals be better off with Brady House but without multiple of Kudrna, Jensen, and Cerantola? I’m not so sure.

Speaking of Brennon McNair, he joined the Top 30 for the first time in the 2025 Update. McNair found his way onto Pipeline’s Top 30 for a short time but has struggled as a professional for most of his career. The gap between McNair and Ramirez isn’t all that wide. Ramirez has a better Future Value as an overall prospect. Many have been quicker than I to raise Ramirez their system rankings, but there are still concerns about positional value long-term. As for McNair, he landed on the updated list thanks to a recent power surge.

McNair has slugged .537 in the Australian Baseball League this Winter. That in itself isn’t cause for extreme hype, but it matches some of what McNair showed last season for the Fireflies. There was a serious power surge after June 1. He slugged six home runs from June 1 through the end of the year. There are still serious concerns around contact rate, but McNair has been showing a higher power ceiling for quite some time now, not just in Australia.

Yes. Cross remains a sound prospect and could very well become an everyday MLB player by the middle of next season. His fall down the rankings has more to do with the type of player he figures to become, rather than whether he will ever become an everyday option. There was a time when Cross looked like a future power force. He flashed plus power at times, but that power has started to dissipate. Some of it may be a result of back issues, but some of it may very well just be who he is as a player. It’s a much more contact-first approach than we initially expected before 2023. That still has value, especially since Cross has shown more athleticism in the outfield than initially expected as well. It’s still a good bet to expect Cross to get a chance as an everyday option sooner rather than later, I just wouldn’t wager on him ever becoming a consistent 20+ home run type of hitter.

Continuing a similar conversation around Cross, Ben Kudrna is in a similar vein of prospect for me. At one time, it wasn’t difficult to see a future in which Kudrna’s fastball could become extremely effective. Accomplishing that and rounding out the rest of his arsenal could make Kudrna a mid-rotation arm in the Majors. It was a huge draw for the Royals in the draft and a big reason they went with the under-slot strategy outlined above. Now, three years later, the development just hasn’t kept up the necessary pace. Kudrna was sent to the Futures Game by Kansas City last summer but otherwise had a rather disappointing season.

His 5.29 FIP was abysmal, even if he maintained relatively flat strikeout and walk rates. Kudrna allowed eight home runs in eight starts for the Naturals following a midseason promotion in 2024. Opposing hitters hit .278 against him and Kudrna’s 23.3% strikeout rate was good, but not elite by any definition. The profile looks more like a borderline starter nowadays, with a move to leverage bullpen innings looking more likely with each passing season. That still isn’t a bad outlook, but Kudrna looks as volatile as they come and it would be nice to see more noticeable additions and tweaks to the repertoire to rediscover some of that mid-rotation ceiling that he once had.

Zobac is the best pitching prospect in the system. He’s become increasingly effective as he’s moved up through the system, and for a prospect who only became a full-time pitcher in his final year of college, the ceiling remains extremely high for a now 24-year-old. It seems the Royals have only just started to uncover just how good Zobac can be, and he showed in 2024 an ability to hold up over a full starter’s workload. There are less questions now about whether he can really be a starter at the next level and more questions about just how good he can be (in a good way).

The fastball is electric, elevated most by Zobac’s impressive command of the strikezone. At times, he’s surgical with the way he commands his arsenal. Zobac’s changeup is a future 55-graded offering and his slider took immense steps forward in 2024. The slider is now a potentially 55-grade offering as well. The total package is three above-average offerings with the potential for a plus fastball, all with 60-grade command if he can remain consistent. There’s not a better total package in a pitching prospect right now in the entire farm system.