The Royals added Hiro Wyatt in their early 2023 draft. The early draft was heavy with prep players including Wyatt, Blake Wolters, and Blake Mitchell. Wyatt was the Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year for the 2022-23 season. That season, he finished 7-0 with a 0.67 ERA. Over 41.2 high school innings, he struck out 90. Like Wolters before him, Wyatt has a promising slider and good fastball velocity. Wyatt is yet another Connecticut prospect, joining fellow Royals prospects Frank Mozzicato and Henry Williams.

At times, the fastball for Wyatt has sat in the lower 90s, but by the end of last spring, he was sitting closer to 97 mph. His slider is spun excellently and has great, sweeping action. The Royals’ 2023 draft strategy circled a lot of late risers, including early picks Carson Roccaforte and Wyatt. If it works out, they could have found good value in Wyatt, a former USC commit.

Scouting Grades:

Fastball: 40/55

Slider: 45/60

Changeup: 35/40

Command: 40/45

Best Case Scenario

It’s all projection right now, surrounding Hiro Wyatt. The raw stuff that he possesses behind his fastball and slider can take him a long way as he continues to refine them. The real determination of his ceiling will fall more on how he develops the rest of his repertoire and how he commands it. Right now, I liken Wyatt a bit to Brady Singer, simply because his arsenal is rather limited but he’s still been able to live on it thus far. The real best case here involves him actually developing a true third and fourth offering (unlike Singer) to help him overcome what looks like it could be average or below-average command.

Worst Case Scenario

The worst case here is no development within the arsenal. If Wyatt leans heavily on the fastball/slider and doesn’t effectively add to that, his ceiling will be limited to a back-end starter or leverage reliever. There’s enough velocity and movement on his current two-pitch mix that the path to a successful SIRP seems like a safe wager. Of course, the Royals hope for more than that from a third-round selection, especially after signing him for more than $500k over slot value.