Top young talent like Chourio, Mitchell stepping up for Royals this spring

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The last time the Royals had a pitcher atop their MLB Pipeline preseason prospect rankings was 2019 in Brady Singer. Catcher Carter Jensen’s Major League ascent and success kept the armless streak alive for 2026, but teenage hurlers Kendry Chourio (No. 3 on their current Top 30 list) and David Shields (No. 4) could contend to break it in ‘27 with strong summers.

Chourio, a $247,500 signee out of Venezuela in January 2025, was one of the Minor Leagues’ biggest breakout talents for any age and level last year. The 6-foot right-hander climbed from the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League all the way to Single-A Columbia before his 18th birthday, and he finished with a 3.51 ERA, a 0.95 WHIP and 63 strikeouts in 51 1/3 innings across three levels. He was the only age-17 pitcher to appear at Single-A in 2025.

Only 13 months older, 2024 second-rounder Shields opened very briefly in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League last May before moving up to Columbia after only one start. The 6-foot-2 lefty finished with a 2.01 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP and 81 strikeouts in 71 2/3 innings in the Carolina League. His 23.1 K-BB% and 2.57 FIP were both second among the 110 pitchers who threw at least 70 frames in Single-A ball in 2025, regardless of age.

Zoom out a bit, and there were 1,383 Minor League pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched last year. Only 21 of those 1,383 were aged 18 or younger. Only three of those 21 walked five percent or less of their batters faced. One was Chourio (2.4 percent). Another was Shields (5.0).

"The talent from both of them is in the pitchability,” said Royals director of player development Mitch Maier. “I would say it’s something that's really rare for their age, to be able to command their pitches the way they do. Then just the maturity -- how they handle their business -- it's also off the charts.

“I don't know if I've seen, like I did last year with Kendry, a 17-year-old that was as mature as him and managed his days that well. David was the same way. They're both extremely, extremely disciplined and mature.”

Chourio’s level of strike-throwing is already especially elite, having walked only five batters in 51 1/3 innings in 2025, and he hits his spots while showing three quality pitches in his fastball, curveball and changeup. The heater sat 96-98 mph with natural cut during Chourio’s two-inning Spring Breakout appearance on Friday, up about one tick from the 94-97 he sat in ‘25.

Rising to the challenge has been a constant theme of his young career.

"If we didn't feel like he was ready to handle, obviously, all aspects -- talent, performance, maturity -- we wouldn’t have [pushed him],” Maier said. “We didn't worry or hesitate with sending him there.”

Shields faces bigger questions about his velocity, having sat only 89-91 mph with his heater with Columbia last year. But his low-80s slider generated a healthy amount of whiffs, and this spring, he’s added more depth to his curveball to give himself another quality breaker. The Royals reiterate to anyone who will listen that Shields can add strength as he moves toward his 20s and that they prioritize his early success in other areas.

"Our No. 1 goal with all of our young players and pitchers specifically, is when they go through that first offseason and that first full season that they then be able to build that foundation,” Maier said. “Have health first and be able to move and build from there. David's much more prepared going into this year, and he already had a fantastic offseason the one before.”

Already the top two arms in the system, Chourio and Shields could break into the Top 100 and, yes, maybe even the top of the Kansas City system with strong returns to full-season ball and 20-30 extra innings on top of their 2025 workloads. But just don’t call what comes next a breakout. It’ll be a continuation.

“You’re not sneaking up on guys,” Maier said.

Something to prove: Blake Mitchell (Royals' No. 2, MLB No. 75)

The 2023 eighth overall pick is coming off a 2025 season that was difficult to evaluate from all angles. He suffered a broken right hamate bone early on in Spring Training, and further setbacks limited him to only 49 games with High-A Quad Cities, during which he slugged only .296 and struck out 32.9 percent of the time. He made up for the lost time in the Arizona Fall League but was still dealing with the aftereffects of an injury that can often sap sluggers of their power for months.

"I would say around the middle of the Fall League is actually when it felt like it didn’t bother me at all,” he said.

Mitchell gave a peek at what he could do with full hand health when he smashed a homer at 116.5 mph on Oct. 23, the 10th of his 19 Fall League games. He followed that up with a 114.4 mph Cactus League homer on March 11 and a 109 mph shot in the Royals' Spring Breakout game Friday. For a backstop whose power potential has kept him in the Top 100 even after the injury, a healthy and productive 2026 would only solidify that status, if not shoot Mitchell up even higher in the rankings.

"He may have been playing pain-free, but he still was not fully over the hump of what effects the injury had on him,” Maier said of Mitchell’s 2025. “Having a healthy offseason, getting a chance to train and then having a healthy spring will definitely put him in a better spot.”

Camp standout: Justin Lamkin (No. 15)

The buzz on the 2025 71st overall pick was loud, and that was before he started for the Royals in the Breakout game.

Pitching in a back-fields game against Rangers prospects on March 10 (in which MLB Pipeline was in attendance), the 6-foot-4 left-hander was sitting 94-95 mph over two innings, notably up from his 91-93 at Texas A&M, and was getting Texas hitters to miss routinely on a slider he commanded consistently to his glove side. He also mixed in the occasional curveball and changeup that drew interest from a crowd of teammates that grew as his strikeouts piled up.

Lamkin continued to produce and show strong stuff as Kansas City's Spring Breakout starter against the Rangers on Friday, and it was much of the same story. His pair of fastballs were roughly 93-95 mph, and he got whiffs on nine of the 10 swings combined against his low-80s slider and upper-70s curveball, both of which come with limited horizontal movement. He struck out six of his 11 batters faced and allowed just one walk and one hit batsman over three frames.

It was a public look at what K.C. officials had seen behind the scenes for weeks, and it could be a sign of a major breakout to come in Lamkin’s first full season.

"It’s stuff, it's pitchability, it's power from the left side,” Maier said. “It’s a starter because he has the quality of pitches. It's been really impressive. I'm really excited because, wow, this is what it looks like.”

Breakout potential: Freddy Contreras (No. 22)

Signed for just $147,000 in January 2025, Contreras would have been the top Dominican Summer League arm for many other clubs but may have gotten lost a little in Chourio’s shadow. Nonetheless, he posted a 3.30 ERA with 37 strikeouts and 13 walks in 30 innings at the international complex, and he earned strong reviews for a 95-98 mph fastball, above-average curveball and solid changeup. With a 17th birthday in August, he was one of only six age-16 pitchers to toss at least 30 frames in the DSL last season, and his 29.6 percent K rate, 19.2 K-BB%, 1.17 WHIP and 3.17 FIP were all tops among that group.

Like Chourio, Contreras may be a bit undersized at 5-foot-11, but the size of his talent could launch him up the Royals’ Top 30 if he can carry his current stuff over a larger stateside sample in ‘26.

"He's not far off from when you watch Kendry from a talent standpoint,” Maier said. “We'll see how we progress him through the season this year, but it’s an exciting arm.”