# List of Kansas City Royals first-round draft picks

The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball franchise based in Kansas City, Missouri. The franchise, founded in 1969, plays in the American League Central division. Since the institution of Major League Baseball's Rule 4 Draft, the Royals have selected 57 players in the first round. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the Rule 4 Draft is Major League Baseball's primary mechanism for assigning amateur players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its franchises. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings with the team that had the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams that lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks. The First-Year Player Draft is unrelated to the 1968 expansion draft in which the Royals initially filled their roster.
Of the 57 players first-round draft picks, 31 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 20 of these were right-handed, while 11 were left-handed. Twelve outfielders were selected, and eight shortstops, three catchers, and two third basemen were taken. The team also selected one player at first base, but has never drafted a second baseman. Fifteen of the players came from institutions in the state of California, while Florida and Texas follow with seven players each. The Royals have drafted two players, Luke Hochevar (2006) and Aaron Crow (2009), who were playing in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball draft. Both had been drafted previously by other major league teams but had chosen to play for the Fort Worth Cats instead. They have also drafted one player from Puerto Rico: Juan Lebron (1995).
Seven of their first-round picks have won World Series championships with the team. Outfielder Willie Wilson (1974) and shortstop Buddy Biancalana (1978) appeared during the Royals' 1985 World Series victory, while Alex Gordon (2005), Luke Hochevar (2006), Mike Moustakas (2007), Eric Hosmer (2008) and Christian Colón (2010) were all part of the winning team in the 2015 World Series. Zack Greinke (2002) is the only first-round pick of the Royals to earn a Cy Young Award with the team, winning in 2009. Royals' first-round picks have never won Rookie of the Year or Most Valuable Player awards, and no pick has been elected to the Hall of Fame. The Royals have made seven selections in the supplemental round of the draft. They have made the first overall selection in the draft once, in 2006. The club has had 13 compensatory picks since the institution of the First-Year Player Draft in 1965. These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the prior off-season, or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year. The Royals' first-ever pick, John Simmons (1969), did not sign with the club but they received no compensatory pick.

## Key

| Year | Links to an article about that year's Major League Baseball Draft |
| Position | Indicates the secondary/collegiate position at which the player was drafted, rather than the professional position the player may have gone on to play |
| Organization (Location) | Indicates the previous high school, university, or other organization the player was drafted from |
| Pick | Indicates the number of the pick |
| * | Player did not sign with the Royals |
| § | Indicates a supplemental pick |
| '85 | Player was a member of Royals' 1985 championship team |
| '15 | Player was a member of Royals' 2015 championship team |

## Picks

| Year | Name | Position | Organization (Location) | Pick | Ref |
| 1969 | John Simmons* | Shortstop | Childersburg High School (Childersburg, Alabama) | 23 | |
| 1970 | Rex Goodson | Catcher | Pine Tree High School (Longview, Texas) | 8 | |
| 1971 | Roy Branch | Right-handed pitcher | Beaumont High School (St. Louis, Missouri) | 5 | |
| 1972 | Jamie Quirk '85 | Shortstop | St. Paul High School (Whittier, California) | 18 | |
| 1973 | Lew Olsen | Right-handed pitcher | San Ramon Valley High School (Danville, California) | 9 | |
| 1974 | Willie Wilson '85 | Outfielder | Summit High School (Summit, New Jersey) | 15 | |
| 1975 | Clint Hurdle | Outfielder | Merritt Island High School (Merritt Island, Florida) | 9 | |
| 1976 | Ben Grzybek | Right-handed pitcher | Hialeah High School (Hialeah, Florida) | 18 | |
| 1977 | Mike Jones | Left-handed pitcher | Sunderland High School (Pittsford, New York) | 21 | |
| 1978 | Buddy Biancalana '85 | Shortstop | Redwood High School (Greenbrae, California) | 25 | |
| 1979 | Atlee Hammaker | Left-handed pitcher | East Tennessee State University (Johnson City, Tennessee) | 21 | |
| 1980 | Frank Wills | Right-handed pitcher | Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana) | 16 | |
| 1981 | Dave Leeper | Outfielder | University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) | 23 | |
| 1982 | John Morris | Outfielder | Seton Hall University (South Orange, New Jersey) | 10 | |
| 1983 | Gary Thurman | Outfielder | North Central High School (Indianapolis, Indiana) | 21 | |
| 1984 | Scott Bankhead | Right-handed pitcher | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) | 16 | |
| 1985 | Brian McRae | Shortstop | Manatee High School (Bradenton, Florida) | 17 | |
| 1986 | Tony Clements | Shortstop | Don Antonio Lugo High School (Chino, California) | 24 | |
| 1987 | Kevin Appier | Right-handed pitcher | Antelope Valley College (Lancaster, California) | 9 | |
| 1988 | Hugh Walker | Outfielder | Jacksonville High School (Jacksonville, Arkansas) | 18 | |
| 1989 | Brent Mayne | Catcher | California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California) | 13 | |
| 1990 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | |
| 1991 | Joe Vitiello | Outfielder | University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) | 7 | |
| 1991 | Jason Pruitt | Right-handed pitcher | Rockingham County High School (Wentworth, North Carolina) | 30$^§$ | |
| 1992 | Michael Tucker | Shortstop | Longwood College (Farmville, Virginia) | 10 | |
| 1992 | Jim Pittsley | Right-handed pitcher | DuBois Area High School (DuBois, Pennsylvania) | 17 | |
| 1992 | Sherard Clinkscales | Right-handed pitcher | Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) | 31$^§$ | |
| 1992 | Johnny Damon | Outfielder | Dr. Phillips High School (Orlando, Florida) | 35$^§$ | |
| 1993 | Jeff Granger | Left-handed pitcher | Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas) | 5 | |
| 1994 | Matt Smith | Left-handed pitcher | Grants Pass High School (Grants Pass, Oregon) | 16 | |
| 1995 | Juan Lebron | Outfielder | Carmen Bozello Huyke High School (Arroyo, Puerto Rico) | 22 | |
| 1996 | Dee Brown | Outfielder | Marlboro Central High School (Marlboro, New York) | 14 | |
| 1997 | Dan Reichert | Right-handed pitcher | University of the Pacific (Stockton, California) | 7 | |
| 1998 | Jeff Austin | Right-handed pitcher | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 4 | |
| 1998 | Matt Burch | Right-handed pitcher | Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, Virginia) | 30 | |
| 1998 | Chris George | Left-handed pitcher | Klein High School (Spring, Texas) | 31$^§$ | |
| 1999 | Kyle Snyder | Right-handed pitcher | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) | 7 | |
| 1999 | Mike MacDougal | Right-handed pitcher | Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) | 25 | |
| 1999 | Jay Gehrke | Right-handed pitcher | Pepperdine University (Malibu, California) | 32$^§$ | |
| 1999 | Jimmy Gobble | Left-handed pitcher | John S. Battle High School (Bristol, Virginia) | 43$^§$ | |
| 2000 | Mike Stodolka | Left-handed pitcher | Centennial High School (Corona, California) | 4 | |
| 2001 | Colt Griffin | Right-handed pitcher | Marshall High School (Marshall, Texas) | 9 | |
| 2002 | Zack Greinke | Right-handed pitcher | Apopka High School (Apopka, Florida) | 6 | |
| 2003 | Chris Lubanski | Outfielder | Kennedy–Kenrick Catholic High School (Norristown, Pennsylvania) | 5 | |
| 2003 | Mitch Maier | Catcher | University of Toledo (Toledo, Ohio) | 30 | |
| 2004 | Billy Butler | Third baseman | Wolfson High School (Jacksonville, Florida) | 14 | |
| 2004 | Matthew Campbell | Left-handed pitcher | University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina) | 29 | |
| 2004 | J. P. Howell | Left-handed pitcher | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 31$^§$ | |
| 2005 | Alex Gordon '15 | Third baseman | University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Lincoln, Nebraska) | 2 | |
| 2006 | Luke Hochevar '15 | Right-handed pitcher | Fort Worth Cats (Fort Worth, Texas) | 1 | |
| 2007 | Mike Moustakas '15 | Shortstop | Chatsworth High School (Chatsworth, California) | 2 | |
| 2008 | Eric Hosmer '15 | First baseman | American Heritage School (Plantation, Florida) | 3 | |
| 2008 | Mike Montgomery | Left-handed pitcher | Hart High School (Newhall, California) | 36 | |
| 2009 | Aaron Crow | Right-handed pitcher | Fort Worth Cats (Fort Worth, Texas) | 12 | |
| 2010 | Christian Colon '15 | Shortstop | California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California) | 4 | |
| 2011 | Bubba Starling | Outfielder | Gardner Edgerton High School (Gardner, Kansas) | 5 | |
| 2012 | Kyle Zimmer | Right-handed pitcher | University of San Francisco (San Francisco, California) | 5 | |
| 2013 | Hunter Dozier | Shortstop | Stephen F. Austin State University (Nacogdoches, Texas) | 8 | |
| 2013 | Sean Manaea | Left-handed pitcher | Indiana State University (Terre Haute, Indiana) | 34$^§$ | |
| 2014 | Brandon Finnegan | Left-handed pitcher | Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, TX) | 17 | |
| 2014 | Foster Griffin | Left-handed pitcher | The First Academy (Orlando, Florida) | 28$^§$ | |
| 2014 | Chase Vallot | catcher | St. Thomas More High School (Lafayette, Louisiana) | 40$^§$ | |
| 2015 | Ashe Russell | Right-handed pitcher | Cathedral High School (Indianapolis, Indiana) | 21 | |
| 2015 | Nolan Watson | Right-handed pitcher | Lawrence North High School (Indianapolis, Indiana) | 33$^§$ | |
| 2016 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | N/A |
| 2017 | Nick Pratto | First baseman | Huntington Beach High School (Huntington Beach, California) | 14 | |
| 2018 | Brady Singer | Right-handed pitcher | University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida) | 18 | |
| 2018 | Jackson Kowar | Right-handed pitcher | University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida) | 33$^§$ | |
| 2018 | Daniel Lynch | Left-handed pitcher | University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia) | 34$^§$ | |
| 2019 | Bobby Witt Jr. | Shortstop | Colleyville Heritage High School (Colleyville, Texas) | 2 | |
| 2020 | Asa Lacy | Left-handed pitcher | Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas) | 4 | |
| 2021 | Frank Mozzicato | Left-handed pitcher | East Catholic High School (Manchester, Connecticut) | 7 | |
| 2022 | Gavin Cross | Outfielder | Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Virginia) | 9 | |
| 2023 | Blake Mitchell | Catcher | Sinton High School (Sinton, Texas) | 8 |
| 2024 | Jac Caglianone | Left-handed pitcher / First baseman | University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida) | 6 |