Kansas City Royals like upside of NC State’s Luca Tresh, who slid their way in Round 17
The Kansas City Royals wrapped up the third day of the MLB Draft by making 10 more picks with a heavy emphasis on college players.
The group of six pitchers and four position players added to KC’s draft class Tuesday brought the overall number of newly drafted Royals to 21.
The late-round group contained multiple players with the combination of skill, upside and raw talent to generate enthusiasm within the Royals’ scouting department. A particularly intriguing late-round selection came in the form of North Carolina State catcher Luca Tresh, who the Royals view as a premium talent.
The Royals selected Tresh in the 17th round with pick No. 499. Baseball America ranked the 6-foot, 193-pound right-handed hitting catcher the 75th-best draft prospect and MLB.com ranked him 101st.
Royals assistant scouting director Danny Ontiveros said club were “ecstatic” about landing him. Ontiveros said hey see “tremendous” upside in this catcher with power, not to mention upstanding character.
“I’m not trying to speak for the 29 other teams, but there might have been some concerns with some of the metrics, maybe, and maybe a concern with some of the signability — I don’t know,” Ontiveros said of Tresh sliding as far as he did.
“We like him, and we think there’s going to be minor mechanical issues with almost every player. It’s being able to try to figure out what you can fix and what’s workable ... So beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, and we like this guy and we think there’s still a lot more upside with him.”
Tresh saw limited playing time at the start of his collegiate career behind last year’s No. 13 overall pick, Patrick Bailey, the top college catcher a year ago.
This year, Tresh led NC State with 15 home runs and turned in 14 multi-hit games. He also batted .231 with a team-high 71 strikeouts.
He’s a cousin of former New York Yankees infielder/outfielder Tom Tresh, the AL Rookie of the Year in 1962 and a three-time All-Star.
After the Royals selected high school pitcher Frank Mozzicato higher than most projected with the No. 7 overall pick, the assumption was that they might look to sign a player (or multiple players) for less than the recommended slot value of those picks in order to spend more on later selections.
General manager Dayton Moore appeared to allude to such a strategy Sunday night, when he said the club hoped to “maximize” what it could do with later picks.
The Royals drafted another player with major-league bloodlines in the 19th round when they chose third baseman Cam Williams out of the University of Texas with the 559th overall selection.
A 6-foot-2, 195-pound switch-hitter, Williams led Texas with 20 doubles and had the second-most homers (12) on the team. He also logged 51 RBI and scored 42 runs.
His father, Reggie, played outfield for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Anaheim Angels.
The Royals selected just one high school player on the final day of the draft.
The Royals’ other Day 3 draft picks included:
- Round 11, No. 319: SS Brennon McNair (6-foot-1, 175 pounds), Magee (Miss.) H.S.
- Round 12, No. 349: LHP Tyson Guerrero (6-1, 188), Washington
- Round 13, No. 379: RHP Patrick Halligan (6-6, 230), Pensacola State College
- Round 14, No. 409: LHP Caden Monke (6-3, 170), Arkansas
- Round 15, No. 439: OF River Town (5-11, 181), Dallas Baptist
- Round 16, No. 469: RHP Anthony Simonelli (6-2, 200), Virginia Tech
- Round 18, No. 529: RHP Harrison Beethe (6-5, 220), TCU
- Round 20, No. 589: LHP Jack Aldrich (5-11, 204), Tulane.
Over the draft’s three days, the Royals’ 21 selections included 12 pitchers and nine hitters. The group included three high school pitchers (all within the first four rounds), three high school position players, six college hitters and nine college pitchers.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 4:54 PM.
