The first half of the 2023 MLB season is in the books with the All-Star Break going on all throughout this week. The Kansas City Royals are dead last in the American League Central Division with a record of 26-65 with a full-on rebuild in the works.

The Royals will be sellers at the trade deadline if they decide to make any more moves after already shipping off veteran left-handed reliever Aroldis Chapman to the Texas Rangers.

Kansas City added to its farm system on the first day of the MLB Draft. They selected Blake Mitchell, a high school catcher prospect from Texas, with their eighth overall pick.

Prep catchers have been prone to fail in the past. There have been 14 such catchers picked in the first round from 2010-19. Only five of them reached the majors, and only two became everyday starters.

The Royals hope he will be the long-term play for KC, but the short-term play in the meantime is to continue rocking with Salvador Perez until he can’t go any longer. He has expressed that he never wants to retire from baseball.

The plan will be for him and Freddy Fermin to play catcher until prospects like Luca Tresh (#8 Royals prospect) and Carter Jensen (#11 Royals prospect) are available.

As of the time of this writing, mlb.com has both of their ETA’s in 2025 despite Tresh playing for AA Northwest Arkansas and Jensen playing for High-A Quad Cities.

They followed that pick with another high school prospect in right-handed pitcher Blake Wolters from Illinois. He originally committed to playing at Purdue but then flipped his commitment to the University of Arizona. It’s being reported by mlb.com that he is unlikely to get to campus.

He will join the likes of highly talented pitching prospects in the Royals’ farm system including #2 prospect RHP Ben Kudrna, #5 LHP Frank Mozzicato, #7 LHP Angel Zerpa, #9 RHP Jonathan Bowlan and #10 RHP Beck Way.

I don’t know how many pitchers that are currently on the Royals’ roster will end up being on a Royals team that makes the playoffs, but in my opinion, I don’t think it will be many.

In total, ten of the team’s top 20 prospects are pitchers. Sure, some of them will likely be moved at some point, but with their potential plus how poorly the current pitchers are performing, I think almost the entire pitching room needs to have a complete turnover for them to make a postseason push.

As for the rest of the infielders and outfielders, although things haven’t quite worked out the way fans thought they would, there is plenty of potential. This team has a young nucleus that has plenty of time to grow and develop their game and end up on a team that could contend for the postseason in a few years.

Bobby Witt Jr.’s career has gotten off to an underwhelming start to say the least. Especially when you look at some other infielders that have come to the majors and immediately made a major splash such as Elly De La Cruz for the Cincinnati Reds.

However, if they continue to coach him up and make incremental improvements to his game to be a better fielder and hitter, he could bloom to live up to the hype that he received when he was tearing it up in the minors.

The hitting must make significant improvements. Only three active players on the roster are hitting above the league average OPS of .730 (Witt Jr., Fermin, Maikel Garcia). They have the sixth-most strikeouts in the majors and the fourth-most in the American League.

All that is being asked of this team is to show signs of a pulse and some improvements across the board. The same thing should be asked of next year’s team. Contending in 2025 might be a tall ask, but it’s not impossible. Teams can turn around quickly in Major League Baseball, and it can be done again if the Royals treat it right.