Kansas City Royals Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2026 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival 

1. C Carter Jensen | 22 | MLB | 2025

Jensen is a left-handed hitting catcher at six-foot 210 pounds who plays good defense and employs an extremely patient approach in the batter’s box. His 20-game debut in 2025 could not have gone better. He slashed .300/.391/.550 with three home runs and 12 strikeouts against nine walks for Kansas City after posting a .290/.377/.501 slash line in 111 games across Double and Triple-A. It’s hard to project his playing time this season with Salvador Perez in town, but I think we’re looking at something like 500 plate appearances and an intriguing fantasy season. 

2. RHP Kendry Chourio | 18 | A | 2028

Listed at 6’0” 160 pounds, Chourio isn’t the most intimidating dude in the dugout, but things change when takes the mound, where Chourio features a mid-90’s fastball with sneaky ride and nasty curveball that falls off the table, mixing in a solid changeup to round out an arsenal that tunnels well thanks in part to Chourio’s plus control. He made a rare in-season, stateside jump from the DSL to the complex league and was so good there that the club sent him along to Low-A at 17 years old. The final tally was 51.1 innings with a 0.95 WHIP and 63 strikeouts against just five walks. Yeesh. 

3. LHP David Shields | 19 | A | 2028

Kansas City took Shields 41st overall in the 2024 draft and signed him for $2.3 million. He was his team’s starting quarterback in high school, and you can see that core strength, balance and athleticism in the 6’2” 210 pound lefty’s delivery. He repeats his delivery with metronomic precision, generating double-plus control of an above-average fastball-breaker combo and developing changeup. The command was too much for Low-A hitters. In 18 starts, Shields recorded a 2.01 ERA and 1.02 WHIP, allowing just 15 walks against 81 strikeouts in 71.2 innings. 

4. OF Sean Gamble | 19 | NA | 2030

The 23rd overall pick out of IMG Academy, Gamble’s a left-handed hitter with a picturesque swing at 6’1” 188 pounds. I’m always a little wary of the smoothest lefty swingers because I think there’s kind of an aesthetic trick of the eyes at play. Anywho, Gamble seems legit enough, sprays the ball all over the place with ease, though we haven’t gotten any baseball-card outcomes to peruse. The Royals signed him for a spendy $3,997,500 and announced him as an outfielder even though he might wind up bouncing around a little bit because he’s played plenty of infield on the way up. 

5. SS Josh Hammond | 19 | NA | 2030

Hammond could try the Ohtani route as he’s a legit pitching prospect who was also among the best high school hitters in the draft. Kansas City took him 28th overall with the pick they gained when Bobby Witt Jr. finished in the top three for MVP voting. I love that rule, by the way. Baseball, man. Making things happen. At 6’1” 210 pounds, Hammond will start out as a shortstop but might grow or slow out of the position. Both these Royals first rounders are intriguing FYPD picks at the right price. Good job by them. Feels like they’ve righted the ship a bit after some shaky selections (Lacy, Mozzicato, Mitchell). 

6. SS Yandel Ricardo | 19 | A | 2030

Ricardo’s a switch-hitter at 6’1” 180 pounds who signed for $2.4 million but struggled to get it going through 45 games in the Dominican Summer League, slashing .213/.330/.366 with two home runs and 14 stolen bases. He was much better in the complex league, slashing .342/.438/.533 with two home runs and 17 stolen bases in 33 games. KC then waved him along to full-season ball, but he was back on the struggle bus there (.212/.279/.268 in 50 games). I suspect the past is prologue here, and that Ricardo will come back a little stronger next season, and be a little bit better adjusted to the grind of minor league ball, leading to better outcomes.  

7. C Ramon Ramirez | 20 | A | 2029

A six-foot righty listed at 180 pounds, perhaps Ramirez was last weighed on his signing day. He’s filled out a bit. It’s not all bad weight though, and Ramirez held his own in full-season ball, slashing .244/.339/.442 with 11 home runs in 70 games, which might not look like much but was 20 percent better than the league average at the level. Good enough to keep moving up, I think. Should open the year as a 20-year-old in High-A. 

8. RHP Felix Arronde | 22 | A+ | 2027

Felix is always around the strike zone, posting WHIPs of 1.08, 1.02 and 1.17 across 128.2, 110.1 and 48.2 innings pitched over the last three seasons. He struck out just 101 batters in those 128.2 High-A innings this season but kept the ball in the yard and recorded a tidy 2.80 ERA. That puts him pace for 150+ innings this season, likely split about evenly between Double and Triple-A. He might even push for a late-season debut. At 6’3” 185 pounds with a smooth three-quarters delivery he repeats well, Arronde’s best pitch is a split-change that dives late and generates a lot of weak contact and misses its fair share of bats. 

9. C Blake Mitchell | 21 | A+ | 2028

The 8th overall pick in the 2023 draft, Mitchell is a left-handed power hitter at 6’1” 202 pounds who frames and receives with a steady calm behind the dish. In the box, he brings an all-or-nothing approach of patience and power, which brought him a lot more nothing in 2025 than the year before. He hit just three home runs in 60 games and slashed .207/.372/.296 in 49 High-A games. The math isn’t really mathing on his extreme passivity. Time to swing that stick, Blake. Try to make the team look less silly for drafting this guy over Kyle Teel to play draft pool roulette.  

10. SS Luis Steven King | 18 | DSL | 2030

This spot could rightly go to RHP Ben Kudrna or SS Ramcell Medina or OF Asbel Gonzalez, but I’m gonna shout out a flier for First-Year-Player drafts this winter. Plus I’ve been watching WELCOME TO DERRY, so that might’ve played a role in my willingness to dig in here. King signed for $170,000 and started slowly in the Dominican Summer League, but something clicked on June 27, and from then onward, he slashed .337/.487/.483 with 20 walks (16.9%) against 15 strikeouts (12.7%) in 31 games. He’s also got a twin brother in the organization: the first set of twins to ever sign with the same organization according to Francys Romero. That can’t be right, can it? I’ve got no reason to argue, though. And I’ve no reason to doubt Luis Steven King as a prospect to this point. At least not until the whole Epstein file drops, if it ever does. 

Thanks for reading!