With the draft arriving tonight, the Royals will get an opportunity to start a reload of their minor league system after trading off pieces in 2015 and losing out on a first round pick in 2016 after the signing of pitcher Ian Kennedy.
The Royals have the 14th selection in the draft after the Rockies lost their 11th pick with the signing of Ian Desmond. The Royals have had the 14th pick two other times in franchise history, 1996 when they chose Dee Brown and 2004 when they picked Billy Butler.
With an allotment of $8,076,900 plus an additional 5 percent cushion, the Royals have the 15th most pool money allotted to them among MLB teams.
The assigned values of the Royals selections are as follows:
| Round | Pick | Slot Value |
| 1 | 14 | $3,727,000 |
| 2 | 52 | $1,295,700 |
| 2 | 73 | $791,700 |
| 3 | 90 | $607,300 |
| 4 | 120 | $441,700 |
| 5 | 150 | $329,800 |
| 6 | 180 | $251,700 |
| 7 | 210 | $196,900 |
| 8 | 240 | $158,900 |
| 9 | 270 | $141,900 |
| 10 | 300 | $133,700 |
Anyone selected after the 10th round is allotted $100,000 towards bonus values.
Since Dayton Moore has taken over the draft in 2007, the Royals have given 21 players a bonus of $1,000,000 or greater. Outfielder Bubba Starling has the highest bonus in that time – $7.5 million while Wil Myers, who received $2 million in the 3rd round (91st pick overall), of the 2009 draft is the highest bonus the Royals have paid after the 1st round.
The 2015 World Series Champion Royals had 12 different players play during the season who were drafted in the GMDM era.
Since the adoption of MLB’s new draft rules, the largest bonus given to a Royals draft pick was the $3.55m given to Sean Manaea with the 35th selection of the 2013 draft.
The last time the Royals had four selections in the top 90 picks was 2014 when they had five in the top 92. They selected Brandon Finnegan, Foster Griffin, Scott Blewett, Chase Vallot and Eric Skoglund with their picks that year.
In the Lonnie Goldberg era, the Royals have selected two position players with their first selection. In 2011, Bubba Starling was selected with the fifth overall pick and in 2013 Hunter Dozier was chosen with the eighth overall pick prior to selecting Manaea 27 picks later.
Bubba Starling (5) and Ashe Russell (21) represent the highest selections of high school players in the Goldberg time period.
The quickest player to the majors in the Goldberg era was Brandon Finnegan, who made it to the majors in September of his draft year in 2014.
Sean Manaea is currently the most successful drafted player by the Royals staff since ’11, amassing 3.6 rWAR to date, with Finnegan not far behind at 3.2. Lefty Danny Duffy is the greatest success story of the GMDM era, registering 12 rWAR since being drafted in 2007, compared to Eric Hosmer’s 10.9 and Mike Moustakas’ 10.6.
The draft begins at 6 pm CST Monday and can be followed on MLB Network or MLB.com. Day 1 will feature the first two rounds of the draft plus the compensatory rounds. Day 2 and Day 3 can be followed on MLB.com with Day 2 featuring rounds 3-10 and Day 3 the final 11-40 rounds.
To find out more about the players the Royals select follow me on Twitter @ClintScoles and look for my recap of all 40 rounds soon after the draft.
If you’re interested in following along as the top names of the draft move off the board, here’s a handy list of the top prospective picks and where they average out in four of the most respected mock drafts.
| Mock Draft Database | BA | Mayo | d1 | Callis | Average |
| Kyle Wright | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 |
| Hunter Greene | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2.00 |
| Brendon McKay | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4.00 |
| MacKenzie Gore | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4.00 |
| Royce Lewis | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4.00 |
| Adam Haseley | 7 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 8.25 |
| Austin Beck | 6 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 8.50 |
| J.B. Bukauskas | 8 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 9.00 |
| Jordon Adell | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9.50 |
| Pavin Smith | 19 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 10.25 |
| Alex Faedo | 10 | 9 | 18 | 10 | 11.75 |
| Shane Baz | 13 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 12.75 |
| Jeren Kendall | 11 | 11 | 20 | 11 | 13.25 |
| Trevor Rogers | 20 | 12 | 9 | 16 | 14.25 |
| D.L. Hall | 14 | 13 | 13 | 18 | 14.50 |
| Nick Pratto | 12 | 18 | 15 | 20 | 16.25 |
| Griffin Canning | 16 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 16.50 |
| Jake Burger | 17 | 21 | 14 | 15 | 16.75 |
| David Peterson | 24 | 15 | 17 | 13 | 17.25 |
| Evan White | 15 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 18.00 |
| Logan Warmoth | 22 | 22 | 21 | 22 | 21.75 |
| Nate Pearson | 18 | 20 | 27 | 26 | 22.75 |
| Keston Hiura | 23 | 24 | 22 | 24 | 23.25 |
| Bubba Thompson | 35 | 26 | 23 | 23 | 26.75 |
| Alex Lange | 35 | 25 | 28 | 21 | 27.25 |
| Tanner Houck | 26 | 23 | 35 | 27 | 27.75 |
| Sam Carlson | 29 | 30 | 26 | 28 | 28.25 |
| Clarke Schmidt | 30 | 35 | 24 | 25 | 28.5 |
| Seth Romero | 25 | 35 | 25 | 35 | 30.00 |
| Heliot Ramos | 21 | 35 | 35 | 35 | 31.50 |
| Nick Allen | 35 | 27 | 35 | 30 | 31.75 |
| Matt Sauer | 35 | 28 | 30 | 35 | 32 |
| Daulton Varsho | 27 | 35 | 35 | 35 | 33 |
| Gavin Sheets | 28 | 35 | 35 | 35 | 33.25 |
| Tristen Lutz | 35 | 35 | 35 | 29 | 33.5 |
| Jeter Downs | 35 | 29 | 35 | 35 | 33.5 |
| Mark Vientos | 35 | 35 | 29 | 35 | 33.5 |