#1: Gavin Cross, OF

The Royals are currently running Cross out in center field, but I think he’s more likely the right fielder of the future than center fielder. His ability to hit the ball hard is impressive, but he also has a unique ability to finesse his way on base that not all big lefties possess. He plays a good outfield, has a cannon for an arm, and a good approach that should allow him to walk enough to be a great on-base guy while he’s hitting for power. He’s the only prospect the Royals have that’s currently a sure-fire top-100 prospect (by national sites…not our standards), and he should begin next year at High-A. I’ll be curious to see how he handles CF long-term, as well as how he handles LHP, but I really think Cross is pretty clearly the best combination of floor and ceiling the Royals have in the system and I can’t wait to see how he hits next year.

#2: Nick Loftin, SS/2B/3B/OF

That’s top-100 prospect Nick Loftin to you.

Seriously, I don’t think I could be any higher than I am on Loftin at the moment. There aren’t many players in MiLB this season with 10+ home runs and 20+ stolen bases and Loftin has done it while keeping his strikeout rate below 15% for most of the season. He runs well, he plays tremendous defense all over the field, he has a fantastic approach at the plate, great bat-to-ball skills, and legitimately enough raw power to hit 10+ HR in the big leagues on a consistent basis. The Whit Merrifield comparison is fair, but I really think Loftin can be more like post-peak Ben Zobrist. In 2014, Zobrist hit 10 HR, stole 10 bases, had a .123 ISO, 117 wRC+, and was worth 4.7 fWAR because he was so valuable defensively. He hasn’t taken to AAA pitching just yet, so it’s almost surely going to be 2023 before we see him in the big leagues, but he’s going to be a huge piece of the future for KC. Don’t let anyone convince you he’s Mitch Maier.

#3: Drew Waters, OF

Something that I thought was kind of interesting tonight was Drew Waters playing LF while Nick Loftin was playing CF. Considering that we think a huge chuck of Waters’ value is the ability to lock up CF, that ought to tell you quite a bit about how much the Royals like Loftin out there.

Anyway, more about Waters. I have absolutely no idea what to make of his adjustments since coming to Kansas City. It’s easy to just chalk it up as #InSaylorWeTrust, but my goodness. He’s raised his walk rate by 6%, added over 80 points to his ISO, bumped his wRC+ nearly 60 points, and lowered his ground ball rate by 7%. The strikeouts are still pretty high…but I don’t think even Drew Saylor is capable of doing that to a guy in one month. Maybe it was just a change of scenery, maybe it really was as simple as a “come to Jesus” moment with Coach Saylor. I don’t know, but Waters has basically been the top-100 prospect most sites thought he was a couple years ago over the last month and the Royals are going to have a chance to capitalize on his turn around next season.

#4: Tyler Gentry, OF

These rankings are really tough and there’s a reason we do an aggregate list. As safe a bet as I think Garcia is to be a big leaguer one day, and as much as I think there’s some legitimate ceiling in his game as well, Gentry just feels like a better bet to be an above average offensive producer and be adequate in the corner outfield. Really, this entire top-5 could change on a daily basis depending on what kind of mood you were catching me in. The important thing isn’t necessarily where they are all ranked specifically, but the fact that they’re mentioned in this article speaks volumes to how we see them fitting into the organization’s future. David Lesky mentioned it on Soren Petro’s “Kauffman Corner” podcast a couple weeks ago, but it sounds like Tyler Gentry may get a shot to compete for a spot on the big league team as soon as Opening Day in 2023. I’d kind of like to see him get some AB’s in the Fall League. I know you’ve seen us tweet about him all summer, but this kid is legit, and he’s definitely going to have a role on the next good Royals team.

#5: Maikel Garcia, SS

Maikel Garcia has had one hell of a year. The 22-year old shortstop (who is Alcides Escobar’s cousin, by the way) went to AA to start the year and did his thing. .369 OBP, 27 stolen bases, good BB/K. He got an opportunity to play in the big leagues during the Toronto fiasco, as well as one other quick stint, and has a 113 wRC+ in 7 big league games. He was recently tearing up AAA before being called up to the big leagues to fill in for Hunter Dozier who is on the paternity list. Garcia can really run, he’s really smooth on the infield, he’s got a great approach at the plate, he has some of the best bat-to-ball skills in MiLB, and he might just hit for enough power to be an All-Star one day. I swear I go back and forth between this kid being a consistent 2.0-2.5 WAR player and a potential 5-win player. It honestly just depends on the day and how many home runs I think he can hit when I’m evaluating it. In any case…the Braves just signed their center fielder to an 8-year, $72M deal. I don’t think you’d have to get close to $72M to lock Garcia up long-term but I sure would be asking.

#6: Jonathan Bowlan, RHP

Jonathan Bowlan was dominating AA hitters in a way we don’t see very often to begin 2021. He only made it 17 innings before he went down with a torn UCL, but that version of Jonathan Bowlan was going to get a bunch of big league innings before the year ended. He’s back and pitching again, but he’s still recovering from Tommy John Surgery and hasn’t quite looked like his old self just yet. Which is fine. This year is just about getting healthy. Bowlan will be 26 next season and ready to pitch his way into a big league rotation. If he hadn’t gotten hurt, I have a feeling we’d be talking about Bowlan in the same vein as Brady Singer and Daniel Lynch right now.

#7: Cayden Wallace, 3B

Cayden Wallace is one of six Royals prospects left with legitimate top-100 potential. The Royals second round pick out of Arkansas absolutely hammers baseballs and I really think he’ll be able to hold it down at 3B long-term. He’s currently on a tear to begin his professional career and he’s supposed to be a junior at Arkansas next spring. Instead, he’ll hopefully be playing with the Royals High-A affiliate in Quad Cities where he’ll have a chance to hit his way to AA and onto top-100 lists.

#8: Angel Zerpa, LHP

We normally take guys off our lists with this much big league experience, but Zerpa appears to be done for the season and I wanted y’all to know where we see him in terms of organizational standing moving forward. I LOVE Angel Zerpa. I understand there are plenty of good reasons to be skeptical about his ability to be more than a #5 starter long-term, but I’m all in. I think he can be a very good #4 type of starter in a playoff rotation. I think at his best he can be a serviceable #3 option in a playoff rotation. The kid is an absolute bulldog on the mound. He’s 22 years old with a career 1.13 ERA in 16 big league innings. He can generate whiffs, he induces a ton of weak contact, and he limits his walks. Is he ever gonna be a front of the rotation guy? Absolutely not. Is he perfectly capable of being a big league starter as soon as Opening Day in 2023? Absolutely.

#9: Alec Marsh, RHP

Ironically enough, for as much as we’ve talked about the hitting development side of things this season, four of the five players on this portion of our rankings are pitchers.

I can’t figure Alec Marsh out. There are only 19 pitchers in all of Minor League Baseball with more strikeouts than Marsh (116) this year, and only 8 of them are pitching at AA or AAA. I’ve commented on Twitter about some things that are notably wrong with Asa Lacy. Frank Mozzicato’s issues can be boiled down pretty easily to command issues. Some of these guys aren’t that hard to figure. Marsh just doesn’t make any sense to me. He has two, distinct, NASTY breaking balls. He’s got a fastball that reaches 97 mph and a changeup that’s a legitimately useful fourth pitch. Steamer’s “Rest of Season” projections on Alec Marsh thinks he’d post a 4.68 ERA if he pitched the rest of the year in the big leagues. That just…I don’t know, man. I don’t want to just say, “Well he’s been pretty unlucky,” because he misses in the fat part of the zone pretty frequently with his fastball, but man…he’s been pretty damn unlucky.

I personally believe that Alec Marsh is still capable of being a #3 in a big league rotation. There aren’t many guys with two breaking balls as good as his AND a legitimate 45 FV changeup. We’ll see if he can sort the rest of it out, but there are way more reasons to be optimistic about Marsh than pessimistic.

#10: Ben Kudrna, RHP

Kudrna has been far and away the best pitcher from the 2021 draft class thus far, posting an ERA of 2.86 through his first 13 professional starts. He’s allowed just one home run in over 50 innings and opponents are hitting just .228 off of him overall. His walks are up a little bit, and he isn’t striking out a bunch of batters the way he did early on, but he simply isn’t getting hit very hard at all and that’s at least a significant upgrade over what we’ve seen from Mozzicato and Panzini so far. Kudrna was drafted because of his projectable body, big fastball, and sharp slider, but it’s actually been his changeup that’s caught my eye more than anything so far this season. It’s a legitimate 60-grade offering and has some crazy depth and arm side run to it. He commands the ball better than his 4.65 BB/9 would suggest, I think, and I maintain that there isn’t a ceiling Kudrna can’t reach if he keeps developing like this. There aren’t many teenagers who have this kind of success in full-season ball as a teenager, and Kudrna fits the bill of what a future top-100 prospect would look like.