Kansas City Royals draft Connecticut high schooler with 7th pick. Here are the details

In the current professional baseball climate of fewer minor-league clubs and a significantly shorter amateur draft, Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore and his scouting department headed up by assistant general manager Lonnie Goldberg have wholeheartedly embraced “upside.”

The Royals selected left-handed pitcher Frank Mozzicato from East Catholic High School in Connecticut with the seventh overall pick in the Major League Baseball Draft on Sunday evening.

Baseball America ranked the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Mozzicato the No. 42 draft prospect among this year’s crop of potential selections, while MLB.com ranked him No. 39. He’d previously committed to play college baseball for the University of Connecticut.

“I’m at a loss for words,” Mozzicato said. “It has been my dream since I was 9 years old to play professional baseball. I couldn’t be more excited to get my career started in Kansas City. They have a great staff, and I’m going to really excel there. I can’t wait. It’s an awesome fit, so I’m just ready to go.”

Mozzicato became the highest draft pick in the summer amateur draft from Connecticut (MLB held a second draft in January until 1986) since the Los Angeles Dodgers selected Bobby Valentine fifth overall in 1968.

Mozzicato said he and his family had an hour-and-a-half Zoom video conference call with the Royals’ scouting and front office staff a couple days before the draft.

“I was a little surprised, definitely, because six months ago I didn’t even think I’d be in this position,” Mozzicato said. “Getting drafted by the Royals, I’m just at a loss for words still.”

During his senior season, Mozzicato made a name for himself on a national level. A jump in velocity and dominant performances brought a plethora of scouts to his games.

Mozzicato, who turned 18 in June, hurled four consecutive no-hitters and recorded a gaudy average of 21.7 strikeouts per 9 innings for his final high school season.

“You can dream on the kid,” Goldberg said. “You can dream on him and his ability. The makeup is off the charts. As we continued to scout him through the spring. You could tell the scouting staff was gravitating to him a lot more. He can really, really spin the breaking ball. He’s super athletic on the mound. We just felt he was the best left-handed pitcher in the class.”

Mozzicato’s fastball registers in the low 90s to go with what’s viewed as an above-average major-league-caliber curveball.

Baseball America selected him to its High School All-America Team.

“If he does what we think he will do, add velocity and add strength and continue to develop a changeup and have pitchability, he should have all the makings of what a front-line starter looks like,” Goldberg said. “Now, at the end of the day, you’ve got to go out and compete, stay healthy, perform and be productive. But at least he has the ingredients walking off the bus.”

Mozzicato is the third pitcher selected by the Royals with their first pick in the past four seasons, but he is the lone high school pitcher of that group.

The other recent pitchers drafted first by the Royals were right-hander Brady Singer with the 18th pick in 2018 out of the University of Florida and left-hander Asa Lacy with the fourth overall pick in 2020 out of Texas A&M.

“We’re going to have to take guys that have a chance to be ones and twos,” Moore said. “You can look at certain college players and you know they’re going to make it to the major leagues, but really what’s their upside? Fourth, fifth starters? Well, fourth, fifth starters aren’t going to win championships, and we’re going to be really aggressive.

“(Club owner John) Sherman has spoken about it. I’ve spoken about it. (Manager) Mike Matheny has spoken about it. We want to have sustained success. If you want sustained success, we’ve got to fill the pipeline with upside talent and then we’ve got to transition it and develop it properly. It’s going to take a little bit longer. We understand that, but we’re willing to pay the price for what we have to do long-term.”

Among the top-rated prospects still on the board when the Royals made their pick were Vanderbilt University right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker, Georgia high school shortstop Brady House and North Carolina high school shortstop Kahlil Watson.

Picking Mozzicato that high seemed to signal the Royals plan to be creative with the signing-bonus pool by signing Mozzicato for less than the $5,432,400 slot value for the No. 7 pick and offering more to later picks.

The Royals drew attention with their draft strategy in 2013 when they drafted Hunter Dozier with their first pick (No. 8 overall) and then selected pitcher Sean Manaea with the 34th overall pick and signed him for $3.55 million, a record for a supplemental-round selection.

“The fact that it’s only 20 rounds now and the value that a lot of players put on themselves, economically, (we felt) that it may be a wise strategy to not only look at the best upside player/pitcher available, but also be able to maximize what we can do later on with the other 19 selections,” Moore said.

Sunday’s portion of the MLB Draft included 29 first-round picks — the Houston Astros lost their first-round pick as part of their penalty for the illegal sign-stealing scandal — as well as one compensation round pick and six competitive balance round selections.

The Royals next pick will be No. 43, the seventh pick of the second round.

The top of the draft included the Pittsburgh Pirates’ selection of University of Louisville catcher Henry Davis with the first overall pick.

Davis’ selection was followed by:

• No. 2 pick: Vanderbilt right-handed pitcher Jack Leiter, selected by the Texas Rangers

• No. 3: Oklahoma high school right-handed pitcher Jackson Jobe, selected by the Detroit Tigers

• No. 4: California high school shortstop Marcelo Mayer, selected by the Boston Red Sox

• No. 5: Sam Houston State University outfielder Colton Cowser, selected by the Baltimore Orioles

• No. 6: Jesuit College Prep (Dallas) high school shortstop Jordan Lawlar, selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks

The draft, which is being held in concert with the MLB All-Star Game and related festivities in Denver, Colorado, continues with rounds 2-10 on Monday and rounds 11-20 on Tuesday.