7:09pm: Lacy signed for $6.67MM, Jim Callis of MLB.com tweets.
2:13pm: The Royals announced Tuesday that they’ve officially signed left-hander Asa Lacy. The former Texas A&M ace was the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft after compiling a career 2.07 ERA with 13.3 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in 152 total innings of college ball (21 starts, 21 relief appearances). He’s the highest pick to come to terms so far, and while his bonus figure wasn’t announced by the club, the No. 4 slot comes with a $6.664MM value.
The Kansas City organization didn’t stop there. It also added shortstop Nick Loftin on a $3MM bonus, Jim Callis of MLB.com reports on Twitter. That’s a far sight higher than the $2,257,300 allocation that came with the competitive balance round A selection with which he was chosen. Loftin decided to go pro rather than returning for another year at Baylor.
Righty Ben Hernandez, an Illinois high-schooler chosen in the second round, agreed to a $1.45MM bonus. (Via Callis; Twitter links.) That freed up nearly $400K to help cover the amount due to Loftin. The Royals also saved a bit on third-rounder Tyler Gentry, an outfielder out of the University of Alabama, who inked for $750K ($818,200 slot value). The Royals also agreed to as-yet-unreported bonuses with Christian Chamberlain, LHP, Oregon State (4th round) and Will Klein, RHP, Eastern Illinois (5th round).
The Royals also announced seven undrafted player signings, rounding out a widely heralded incoming class of amateur talent:
- Saul Garza, C/1B, Louisiana State
- John McMillon, RHP, Texas Tech
- A.J. Block, LHP, Washington State
- Tucker Bradley, OF, Georgia
- Matt Schmidt, INF, Michigan
- Kale Emshoff, C, Arkansas-Little Rock
- Chase Wallace, RHP, Tennessee
While there’s plenty of promise from multiple new prospects, Lacy remains the crown jewel. He was the consensus top pitcher available, which made it rather surprising to see him fall to the Royals at the fourth selection. Virtually all draft pundits graded him as one of the three best prospects up for grabs in 2020.
The Royals will be especially excited with Lacy because of the team’s long-stated intention to engineer a quick rebuild. Having gone heavy on advanced college pitching prospects in recent drafts, with promising early returns, the K.C. club can now look forward to another fast-rising youngster. Lacy possesses and commands an impressive four-pitch arsenal and has already proven himself against top college competition.
He is gonna be the next Koufax.
He’s going to have to be to win games with the Royals.
Career cut short?
I think the royals would take a pitcher who has a HOF level career through age 30 and then needs TJS
Kimberly Koufax ?
My favorite player from the draft. He is going to be a special pitcher.
Or, he could turn into the next Danny Hultzen or Carlos Rodon.
Definitely a special talent but let’s wait and see what he does in the bigs.
that’s very bold
Pretty impressive what royals have done through draft in past couple seasons. Witt and a couple of these pitchers pan out and they can play small ball to be competitive in weak AL central. Well ran organization
Helps that they get extra charity compensations picks and extra international signing room
That is great except the Tigers loaded up on pitching while also showing that they will spend when the time is right in FA (something KC won’t so) and the White Sox aren’t going away anytime soon either. Your “weak” AL central isn’t going to be an easy path for the Royals.
Lolz……
Yankees
Boston
Tampa
Houston
Oakland
Angels
Central is weak
It is right now. Like they said though it won’t be when the Royals are ready to compete.
AL Central is not so weak. Twins and Indians are loaded. White Sox are loaded with young talent coming off a long rebuild….Royals and Tigers have completely overhauled there farms systems and are stocking up with high end, young top talent drafting in the top 5..
In a few years, the AL Central could be stronger than the AL East…
The Indians are far from loaded and the Twins are simply signing everyone they can.
Explain to me why you think the Royals won’t go in free agency and get players they need to get them into the playoffs ect??
JDC, when has that happened?
How about all the trades they made to make their team better and a World Series team, like James Shields, Wade Davis, Ben Zobrist ect….along with signing Kendrys Morales, Edinson Volquez ect as free agents
You ask “when has that happened” and you’ve obviously only seen one owner
David Glass… You must not remember Ewing Kaufmann who spent very lavishly…
David Glass is gone…
The question with the Tigers is will they spend on anyone who will actually help them win a title. And the White Sox have ‘won’ every off season for the last decade. Every year I hear about how they are the team to beat in the Central, and every year they under perform.
The Twins are legit, with a lot of talent all over the field. And Cleveland will seemingly always have great pitching..
The Royals haven’t developed a frontline starter in a decade, so I don’t buy into that hype either. But I am going to need to see the Tigers and the Sox actually do something before I will believe that they are the future of baseball.
The Tigers signed Ivan Rodriguez, Kenny Rogers and Magglio Ordonez, Drafted Verlander, traded Andrew Miller for Cabrera, traded Granderson for Max Scherzer, traded to get Doug Fister, Traded to get David Price. They had a dying owner that traded the farm for almost a decade of contention. The Tigers have a loaded farm system and very low commitment to any contracts. They are primed.
The White Sox are loaded with talent too. Giolito and Keuchel backed by Yasmani Grandal, Yoan Moncada, Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, and Luis Robert. They have Andrew Vaughn coming and a deeper farm than KC.
The Twins window is now and it’s going to close right after the Tribe.
It’s technically true that the Royals haven’t developed a frontline starter in a while, but it’s a little unfair since nobody knows where Yordano Ventura would be right now.
very true. ace’s death threw a terrible curve ball at the future. the unexpected tragedy forced signing a starter for the rotation to fill the gap left behind, that was just plain bad (jason hammel). Sometimes I wonder – if Ace had not died in january 2017, could the Royals have possibly made it to the wildcard that year? It might have affected draft picks in 2018 though. We probably would have still received the compensation picks for Cain and Hosmer but I’m not sure if we would’ve still had same pick. # in 2018 That we used for drafting Brady singer, If we had managed to make it to the wildcard regardless if we won or not.
True. What they have been shown to do is trade highly regarded prospects to put together a championship squad. Rather than$.
Tigers signed their share of free agents including Pudge Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, Prince Fielder etc…They have cash to sign a few FAs to put them over the top if need be..
That philosophy has changed…with the death of Mike Illitch. Chris Illitch, Mike’s son, wants to grow a long term contender on the farm with some trades and FAs as the cherries on top. The Tigers farm is being flooded with great young talent. A pipleline is being established. Much of the Tigers talent will come from that pipeline.
Also signing Price Fielde was a disaster. As a Royals fan I’m fine with them not signing nine figure deals just to say we did.
Prince Fielder played two years in Detroit… he played ALL 162 games both seasons and was an allstar both seasons. Detroit traded Prince away for Kinsler who was an allstar his first year with Detroit.
Your “disaster” claim is suspect.
Theres nothing impressive about what they have done. Doesn’t make it bad either, but as a team thats so far away you just need to wait and see. Their drafting has been alright. The Royals need a mountain of talent to complete again and they just don’t have it yet. Small ball is not winning a thing in modern baseball.
They went to two WS in a row. When’s the last time any other central team did that ?
Singer was the #1 prospect going into the preseason of that draft and they took 3 college pitchers who all pitched very well in debuts. And this draft was terrible as far as talent depth and they got high reviews. Not sure how you grade acquiring talent but royals been doing alright
.
Those WS teams are long gone. They have three top 100 prospects and one of them was the #2 overall pick. They have done nothing to impress yet. They don’t even have a top 3 farm in their own division.
LOL…. Dozier, Mondesi, Perez, Merrifield, Soler, Junis, Keller… All guys recognized for talent or promising younger talent.
Our lineup produces runs, most are in or just getting to their prime.
When the arms get here.. Lynch, Singer, Bubic, Kowar, Lacy… All guys w/in a year of the Bigs… we will be dangerous.
Witt, Pena, Lee, Isbel, Hicklen, Loftin… All w-in two years of making the jump. A few are blocked by younger talent already promoted.
I’m looking forward to the day when the Royals have a “lethal” pitching rotation.
AL Central is not so weak. Twins and Indians are loaded. White Sox are loaded with young talent coming off a long rebuild….Royals and Tigers have completely overhauled there farms systems and are stocking up with high end, young top talent drafting in the top 5..
In a few years, the AL Central could be stronger than the AL East…
AL Central is not so weak. Twins and Indians are loaded. White Sox are loaded with young talent coming off a long rebuild….Royals and Tigers have completely overhauled there farms systems and are stocking up with high end, young top talent drafting in the top 5..
In a few years, the AL Central could be stronger than the AL East…
Infielder M Schmidt is joining the Kansas City Royals !!