The Royals waited a handful of days to announce their full crop of signings, but as has become customary, the team announced nearly two dozen international signings on Friday. The class extends a slew of large classes by Kansas City dating back to a franchise record 30 signees in 2023. The 2025 international signees will take time to impact the big-league club (if they ever do). Still, there was perhaps uncertainty about whether they’d join the organization at all. Rumors swirling earlier this week that I heard from multiple sources suggested that the Royals were in the mix to potentially trade some international bonus pool money to teams in the Roki Sasaki bidding war.
Although those rumors have yet to truly be substantiated, the notion all but dissipated by Friday afternoon when the Cleveland Guardians sent Myles Straw and bonus pool cash to Toronto. Of course, that added room didn’t help Toronto. The franchise finished as the runner-up to the Dodgers in the Sasaki sweepstakes. For the Royals, the international class doesn’t offer Sasaki, but there’s still some promising talent in the class that’s worth mentioning.
Royals sign 22 international free agents to open the 2025 signing period
The headliner of the class is infielder Warren Calcaño out of the Dominican Republic. Baseball America had Calcaño ranked seventh in the class.
It’s still a wiry frame, but he has grown taller to get to 6-foot-2, 165 pounds with more room to pack on weight. Calcaño looks like a true shortstop between his instincts, actions, and athleticism. He has good body control, moves his feet well, has clean hands and a plus arm that could get stronger.
There isn’t much power currently in Calcaño’s profile but he adds to a growing shortstop tree down in the Dominican alongside last year’s Yandel Ricardo.
Outfielders Luis Ramon King (6-foot-3) and Luis German (6-foot-4) add some immense power potential in the outfield. Both outfielders project extremely well but will have to prove their contact ability to truly get into that power. Kendry Chourio touches the upper 90s already as a teenager and is a name to watch into 2025 as well.
The other highly ranked prospect in the class is Moises Marchán. A catcher, Marchán is surprisingly athletic and runs well above average currently. The contact ability is already fairly well advanced for his age, not too dissimilar from what the Royals saw from Ramon Ramirez in his first year as a pro back in 2023. Marchán was signed out of Venezuela. The class will work in the Royals’ Dominican Complex and most should make their professional debuts there in 2025.