After drafting Zion Rose and Taylor Rabe with the sixth and 30th picks, respectively, in the 2026 MLB Draft, the Royals made three additional selections to round out the first day. Kansas City chose two high schoolers and another college pitcher with those selections.
56th pick: Jack Slightom, right-handed pitcher from Lyons Township High School
With the 56th pick, the Royals drafted a player who will also get some of the signing bonus savings
from picking Rose: Jack Slightom, a right-handed pitcher from a Chicago area high school. Slightom ranked as the 89th best prospect per MLB and the 60th prospect per ESPN, and was outside the top 100 from The Athletic and Fangraphs.
From Fangraphs:
This year’s Midwest pop-up arm, Slightom is a Cincinnati commit whose fastball velocity climbed from the upper 80s to the mid-90s over the last year. He is built like a human/whooping crane hybrid at a skinny 6-foot-5, and he works east/west with a tailing fastball, changeup, and lateral slider. Inconsistent mechanics and worry about fastball playability are why Slightom is viewed here as more of a dev project than a guy who comfortably projects to have multiple plus pitches.
From MLB.com:
Slightom worked with an 88-91 mph fastball as a junior, touched 95 at the World Wood Bat Association World Championship in October and has reached 98 with carry and armside run this spring. His 77-81 mph slider could use some power and lacks consistency, yet he’ll spin some solid breaking balls at times. He doesn’t use his changeup very often but shows some aptitude for the mid-80s offering, which flashes some nice tumble and fade.
Slightom works with a side-step delivery and a low arm slot that provides some deception. A Cincinnati recruit, he’s athletic and should add some needed polish once he focuses on baseball. With room to add plenty of strength to his 6-foot-5 frame, he could develop an upper-90s heater and a mid-80s slider.
91st pick: Maxx Yehl, left-handed pitcher from the University of West Virginia
Maxx Yehl dominated in the Big 12, striking out 27.9% of batters en route to a 2.13 ERA. He only walked 6.5% of batters, too. Yehl is another pitcher whose previous college time impacted by Tommy John surgery (again, this is a common thing now). Yehl ranked as the 217th best prospect per MLB and the 161st best per ESPN.
From Fangraphs:
Yehl thrives on deception. He gets on top of the ball even with a three-quarters slot, and with his back foot in the middle of the rubber, he strides at nearly a 45 degree angle toward the first base dugout. He lands clean and straight on, and is able to command the ball effectively even with the huge crossfire. Hitters, lefties in particular, looked uncomfortable. His fastball generates above-average to plus carry even with a relatively low slot, and he missed a ton of bats upstairs last year. His slider is mostly horizontal, and he has pretty good feel for spinning it. Yehl can find the back foot and back door against righties, and he likes to run it off the barrels of a lefty. He’ll flash an average curve as well. A changeup isn’t currently part of his equation but will likely need to be if he’s going to start.
I don’t know how well this will work against hitters more accustomed to outlier release points, but college bats can be rough on smoke and mirrors types, and they barely touched Yehl this year; he may just have the juice, deception wise. He isn’t particularly physically projectable, but developing a change is a potential path forward, and he looks like an intriguing early-round flier. You can dream on a backend starter.
From MLB.com:
While he only has this season as a starter on his resume, Yehl’s size and pure stuff should at least give him a chance to stick in a rotation at the next level. The 6-foot-6 lefty has shown the ability to get his fastball up to 96-97 mph, especially early in the season. As the Mountaineers were preparing for Omaha, Yehl showed some signs of fatigue and a loss of a tick or two of velocity, but that’s understandable given he’s just a year removed from elbow surgery, and he’s well beyond any innings total previously accumulated in his career.
Yehl’s best secondary pitch is his slider, which flashes above average and has been up to 87 mph and more around 83-84 mph late. At times he’ll show signs of a distinct cutter and curve, but they do run into each other a bit. He has an upper-80s changeup that doesn’t get called much but could be solid with pro development. Even when fatigued, the 22-year-old Yehl has shown improved strike-throwing and is a plus competitor. If starting doesn’t work out, his fastball-slider combination should work out of a bullpen.
119th pick: Dominic Battista, outfielder from Oswego East High School
For the final pick of day one, the Royals selected their first high school hitter: Dominic Battista, whose high school is located just 30 miles southwest of Slightom’s. ESPN ranked Battista 119th overall, though was outside the top 250 for other outlets.
Battista is a left-handed hitter with some speed. From the Prospect Porch:
That raw power was on full display at the Super 60, where Battista posted an impressive 108.5 mph max exit velocity, while also boasting an 104.1 average mark. His max exit velocity ranked 4th out of the whole event, even more impressive considering 2 of the 3 ahead of him weighed in at north of 220 lbs, more than a 30-pound difference. To go with the raw power, Battista is an excellent runner who’s quick out of the box and has posted plus run times. Pair that with at least above-average arm strength, and you’ve got a profile some consider fit for center field long-term.
Battista will need to continue to assure scouts on the hit tool this spring, considering he doesn’t possess the same track record of hitting higher-caliber arms compared to some of his peers and has struggled with strikeout woes in the past. He struck out in 22 of his 81 plate appearances his junior spring, while also hitting for a .242 average. Though those issues have seemingly improved in his summer stints, it’s still a skeptic part of his profile, even with a fluid left-handed swing that looks quite “hitterish.”
