Last week, the Royals selected the newest players to the organization, headed by #6 overall pick outfielder Zion Rose out of the University of Louisville. Now the team will get signatures on contracts and begin assigning players to minor league rosters. The team introduced Rose to the media after he signed for $5.8 million.
Each of the picks in the first ten rounds is assigned a slot value that the Royals can sign a player above or below that number. After that round, each pick has a slot value of $150,000 where anything above that must come out of the bonus pool, but there are no savings if you sign someone below that number.
The Royals were selected to be in the draft lottery this year, and were awarded with a top-six pick, giving them a larger draft bonus pool than they otherwise would have had – $15,954,000. If a team exceeds their total bonus pool, they must pay taxes on the overage. A team that exceeds their bonus pool by 0-5 percent will pay a 75 percent tax on the overage. If a team exceeds their pool by more than 5 percent, they will lose a future first-round pick. If they exceed by more than 10 percent, they will lose a second-round pick as well, plus pay a 100 percent tax on the overage. If a team exceeds their pool by 15 percent, they will lose two first-round picks, plus pay the 100 percent tax on the overage.
Last year the Royals exceeded their bonus pool, but not by 5 percent.
The Royals have also signed some undrafted free agents:
RHP Jackson Cleveland appeared in 26 games for Oklahoma last year, striking out 42 in 40.2 innings with a 5.31 ERA. The Texas native began his collegiate career at Lamar University before a year at Miami.
2B Jimmy Nati is an Australian native who hit .253/.340/.451 with eight home runs and seven steals in 45 games for Stanford this spring. A right-handed bat, Nati exploded in 2025 with 16 home runs, while hitting .300.
3B Ben North is a fifth-year senior at Creighton, who hit .319/.442/.556 with 11 homers and 26 steals in 57 games. The Minnesota native missed times his freshman year with a knee injury, and ended up playing 220 career games for the Blue Jays.
We will update this draft bonus tracker as news trickles in. The deadline to sign picks is July 27.
