KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A pair of Kansas City Royals minor leaguers had their contracts selected Tuesday, adding them to the club’s 40-man roster for the 2026 season.
Right-handed pitcher Ben Kudrna and Steven Zobac’s additions to the 40-man roster brings Kansas City’s total to 39 as of Tuesday.
Kudrna, a 22-year-old who was drafted in 2021 out of Blue Valley Southwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas, made 24 starts in 2025 between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha.
Zobac made 14 starts in 2025 due to injuries. Eleven of those 14 starts were with the Naturals in Double-A.
With the Chiefs at 5-5, KCTV’s Marleah Campbell and Gabe Swartz discuss the failures and evaluate their chances to reach the playoffs.
In 2024, Kudrna was a Futures Game representative for the Royals and he was named the organization’s Paul Splittorff Pitcher of the Year in 2022. Zobac won that award in 2024, two years after being selected by the Royals in the fourth round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of the University of California-Berkeley.
If Kudrna makes an appearance on the Royals’ Major League roster in 2026, he’d join a team that features several area products with St. Joseph, Missouri, native Noah Cameron in the rotation and catcher Carter Jensen, a Kansas City, Missouri, native as one of the club’s top hitting prospects.
Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.