Yesterday, it was announced that the Kansas City Royals released pitcher Asa Lacy.
Lacy, a lefty out of Texas A&M, was the #4 overall pick in the MLB Draft in 2020, ranked #3 overall by Baseball America, and his $6.67 million signing bonus was the fourth largest in the class. He has been dogged by injuries in his professional career, and hasn’t pitched in an affiliated game since 2022, when he had a 10.61 ERA in 28 innings over 15 appearances between the Arizona Complex League and the Texas League.
We have previously discussed how the 4th overall pick in the MLB Draft seems cursed, although Wyatt Langford and Nick Kurtz are currently doing their best to dispel that notion. Still, in the 30 years since Kerry Wood was selected fourth overall in 1995, only five players — Ryan Zimmerman, Kevin Gausman, Kyle Schwarber, Gavin Floyd and Wyatt Langford — have hit double digits in bWAR.
But fourth pick superstitions aside, almost six years after the 2020 draft took place, the first round as a whole appears to be a massive disappointment. Here are the first ten picks:
1 — Spencer Torkelson to the Tigers. Torkelson, a third baseman out of Arizona State, was supposed to be a major league ready impact bat. After three disappointing seasons in the majors from 2022-24, Torkelson appeared to have turned a corner in 2025, when he put up a 117 OPS+ and 2.3 bWAR. Alas, he’s off to a slow start in 2026, slashing .179/.329/.224 in 22 games.
2 — Heston Kjerstad to the Orioles. Kjerstad was a below-slot pick as an outfielder out of the University of Arkansas. He’s slashed .218/.284/.365 in 314 major league plate appearances over three seasons as a platoon COF/DH, and started 2026 on the injured list.
3 — Max Meyer to the Marlins. Meyer got the third highest bonus as a righthander out of the University of Minnesota. He’s missed time with injuries and hasn’t been good when he has been on the mound, with a 5.07 ERA in 30 career starts, though the 27 year old has a 3.96 ERA and 3.49 FIP through five starts this season.
4 — Asa Lacy to the Royals. Released.
5 — Austin Martin to the Blue Jays. A shortstop out of Vanderbilt, Austin Martin got the second highest bonus in the draft. Barely a year later, he was traded, along with Simeon Woods Richardson, to the Minnesota Twins in a deal that was initially viewed as a coup for Minnesota, but was probably more the Jays realizing their #5 overall pick wasn’t what they had hoped. He’s missed a lot of time with injuries, and has just a 0.5 bWAR in 163 major league games, though he’s off to a very good start in 2026.
6 — Emerson Hancock to the Mariners. Hancock was a righthanded pitcher out of the University of Georgia. After spending parts of 2023-25 in the majors and not pitching well, he’s put up a 2.83 ERA in five starts so far this season, albeit with a 3.97 FIP and 3.81 xERA.
7 — Nick Gonzales to the Pirates. A shortstop out of the University of New Mexico, Gonzales has played mostly second base in the majors. He has a career .257/.300/.370 slash line in 244 games, with a 0.2 bWAR.
8 — Robert Hassell III to the Padres. The first high schooler selected, Hassell was a toolsy outfielder who you may remember as being the subject of talks between the Rangers and Padres when they were discussing Joey Gallo. Hassell, who turns 25 in August, ended up being traded to the Nationals in the Juan Soto trade. After slashing .223/.257/.315 in 206 plate appearances in 2025, with an ugly 62:8 K:BB ratio, Hassell is back in AAA this year and sporting a 667 OPS.
9 — Zac Veen to the Rockies. The second high schooler taken, and like Hassell an outfielder, Veen made his major league debut last season, putting up a 424 OPS in 12 games. He is in AAA this year and has a 576 OPS.
10 — Reid Detmers to the Angels. Finally, a success story, kinda! A lefthanded pitcher out of the University of Louisville, Detmers, in typical Angels first round fashion, made his major league debut in 2021. He put up a 4.6 bWAR between 2022-23, was bad in 2024, pitched out of the bullpen in 2025, and is back in the rotation in 2026. His 4.9 career bWAR is the fourth highest of any 2020 first rounder.
There were some productive picks later in the first round. Garrett Crochet went 11th overall. Pete Crow-Armstrong was the 19th overall pick. Jordan Westburg looks like a terrific pick at #30. Tyler Soderstrom, selected 26th overall, had a very good 2025 season. Patrick Bailey, selected 13th, is a defensive savant behind the plate, though the bat is lacking.
Still, this is an underwhelming draft — particularly given how college-heavy it was, especially at the top. A college player selected in 2020 should be in his age 26 or 27 season, should be in his prime. Out of the 37 players selected, it looks, at this point, like there are two stars* — Crochet and Crow-Armstrong — a handful of solid regulars, and then guys who are role players, at best.
* Three, if you are sold on Jordan Walker’s start to the season.
That includes, of course, Justin Foscue, who the Rangers took 14th overall. Texas would have been much better off grabbing Crow-Armstrong, or Westburg, though the picks immediately after Foscue were Mick Abel, Ed Howard, Nick Yorke and Bryce Jarvis.
The overall whiff is, I imagine, largely going to be blamed on the pandemic, which resulted in an abbreviated spring season that left evaluators with scant data to go off of in making their selections, as well as disrupting players’ overall development paths, both pre-draft and in the year-plus after they were picked. Under the circumstances, the large number of misses seem understandable.
But hey, at least the Rangers grabbed Evan Carter that year.
