Kansas City Royals Draft History

All tables below are based on the amount of WAR each player produced during their first seven seasons in Major League Baseball. The WAR totals for each draft class include both Pitching and Hitting WAR, but excludes any player that did not sign with their drafting team. The total WAR also reflects the total value the drafted player provided, not just the value to his drafting team.

*Data accurate through 2019 season.

Top Five Draft Classes

YearTeamWAR
1981Kansas City Royals51.1
1987Kansas City Royals39.7
1971Kansas City Royals39.4
1992Kansas City Royals38.9
2007Kansas City Royals34.5

Bottom Five Draft Classes

YearTeamWAR
1978Kansas City Royals-2.7
1990Kansas City Royals-1.4
1989Kansas City Royals-0.8
2001Kansas City Royals-0.4
1977Kansas City Royals0.0
This list excludes any season past 2010, since those draft classes have a multitude of active players.

Top Five Draft Picks

Year DraftedRoundOverall PickNameWAR
1971229George Brett33.0
198219480Bret Saberhagen32.5
1995249Carlos Beltran29.0
198719Kevin Appier28.6
1981374David Cone26.7
List made from top five WAR values alone.

Five Biggest Busts

Year DraftedRoundOverall PickNameWAR
200014Mike StodolkaNo MLB Experience
199814Jeff Austin-0.4
200315Chris LubanskiNo MLB Experience
199315Jeff Granger-0.7
197115Roy Branch0.0
List made from first round picks that produced less than 5.0 WAR in their first seven seasons and ordered by lowest overall pick.

Top Five Value Picks

Year DraftedRoundOverall PickNameWAR
198219480Bret Saberhagen32.5
198311283Kevin Seitzer18.7
196825575Paul Splittorff16.4
199317469Glendon Rusch14.5
1987581226Jeff Conine12.8
List made from top five WAR values where a player was drafted outside of the first ten rounds.

Top Five Unsigned Draft Picks

Year DraftedRoundOverall PickNameWAR
1982490Will Clark31.7
197816415Frank Viola23.0
197411258Scott Sanderson15.6
19814100Shane Mack15.1
201013389Jon Gray12.2
List made from top five WAR values where a player did not sign with the team.

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