But that said, the Royals will have their choice from a strong crop. So, who are some of the names we should be paying attention to? Well, to start, here is the top 10 in the Just Baseball 2026 MLB Draft high school and college boards
High SchoolCollege1. SS Grady Emerson
2. LHP Carson Bolemon
3. OF Blake Bowen
4. LHP Gio Rojas
5. SS Jacob Lombard
6. OF Eric “EJ” Booth
7. LHP Logan Schmidt
8. C Will Brick
9. 3B/SS Tyler Spangler
10. RHP Jensen Hirschkorn1. SS Roch Cholowsky, UCLA
2. OF AJ Gracia, Virginia
2. OF Drew Burress, Georgia Tech
4. SS Tyler Bell, Kentucky
5. 3B Ace Reese, Mississippi State
6. RHP Cam Flukey, Coastal Carolina
7. 3B Chris Hacopian, Texas A&M
8. SS Justin Lebron, Alabama
9. C Vahn Lackey, Georgia Tech
10. RHP Jackson Flora, UCSB
The Royals will have their fair share of selections, and while these lists might change, some of these guys make a lot of sense.
As we mentioned, in the 2025 MLB Draft, the Royals went after prep upside in both Sean Gamble and Josh Hammond. We talked at Just Baseball about how the strongest side of the prep class was some of the prep bats, and the Royals dipped in that route twice.
In this class, the prep lefties are super strong.
Keep your eye on names like Carson Bolemon, Gio Rojas, and Logan Schmidt. The Royals haven’t shied away from young lefties in the past, as seen by their selection of David Shields in the 2024 MLB Draft.
Tyler Jennings talked about it on our latest On The Clock podcast, but these lefties were tough to rank, and it was really grasping at straws to differentiate them. Bolemon got the top slot just based on his track record and success over the last couple of years.