The Kansas City Royals finished the 2025 season with an 82-80 record and landed in third place in the American League Central, falling short of postseason hopes after making the playoffs in 2024.

Now, as the organization looks ahead to 2026, the minor league system remains a topic of conversation among Royals fans who want to see reinforcements coming through the pipeline.

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ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel released his 2026 preseason farm system rankings this week, and the Royals came in at No. 24 overall with an estimated value of $118 million in prospect talent.

That ranking places Kansas City in the bottom third of all 30 major league organizations and represents a slight drop from last year when McDaniel had them at No. 22 with $163 million in value.

Carter Jensen Leads The Way

McDaniel pointed to catcher Carter Jensen as the top prospect in the system, ranking him 25th among all prospects in baseball.

Jensen made his major league debut in September and looked like the real deal, hitting .300 with three home runs and a .550 slugging percentage in 60 at-bats after mashing 20 long balls between Double-A and Triple-A.

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The 22-year-old Kansas City native grew up just 20 miles from Kauffman Stadium and figures to be a factor on the big league roster this year as he works behind Salvador Perez.

Beyond Jensen, McDaniel praised the Royals’ 2025 draft class and highlighted two players he considers among his favorites from that group.

Shortstop Josh Hammond and right-hander Michael Lombardi both caught his eye, and he also pointed to lower-level pitcher Kendry Chourio as one of his favorite arms in all of baseball.

Chourio made an aggressive jump through the system last year, going from the Dominican Summer League all the way to Low-A Columbia at just 17 years old.

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Why The Ranking Has Dropped

The Royals’ farm system was not always sitting this low in industry rankings, and understanding why they have fallen helps explain the current state of the organization.

Kansas City consistently ranked among the top ten farm systems from 2020 through early 2022, peaking at eighth in the 2022 preseason rankings when Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Nick Pratto headlined the system.

The problem is twofold. First, a wave of graduations depleted the top of the system as players like Witt, Pasquantino, and Maikel Garcia moved to the big leagues.

Second, and perhaps more concerning, the Royals struggled to hit on their first-round picks from 2020 through 2022.

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Asa Lacy, Frank Mozzicato, and Gavin Cross all failed to develop into the impact prospects the organization hoped they would become, leaving a significant gap in high-end talent that the system is still trying to recover from.

McDaniel summed up the current state of the system by noting that while Jensen will contribute at the major league level this year and Chourio shows exciting potential, the rest of the organization is made up of mostly role players and higher-variance types.

Jac Caglianone and Noah Cameron graduated last year as solid headliners, but the Royals lack the kind of star power at the top that separates elite farm systems from average ones.

Looking Ahead To 2026

The good news is that Kansas City has taken a more data-driven approach under general manager J.J. Picollo and has become more aggressive in the international market.

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Landing Chourio was a significant win, and the organization signed several top international prospects in their most recent class.

If players like Hammond, Lombardi, and Chourio can develop as hoped, the system could look stronger in a year or two.

For now, the Royals will need to rely on their current major league core to compete in the AL Central while waiting for the next wave of talent to mature.

With Witt, Garcia, and Jensen anchoring the lineup and a solid rotation featuring Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo, Kansas City has enough pieces to make a run at the playoffs in 2026 even if the farm system does not provide immediate reinforcements.

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The Brewers took the top spot in McDaniel’s rankings with $349 million in value, followed by the Guardians, Pirates, Dodgers, and Mets.

The Royals have a long way to go before cracking that top tier, but the pieces are in place to climb out of the bottom third if the recent draft classes and international signings can pan out.