The Kansas City Royals selected five players on the first day of the 2025 First-Year Player Draft.
With the 23rd overall pick in the 1st round, the Royals selected outfielder Sean Gamble out of IMG Academy (Fla.). An advisory with information regarding a Zoom call with Gamble will be shared shortly.
The Royals were awarded the 28th overall selection in this year’s Draft—dubbed the Prospect Promotion Incentive pick—due to Bobby Witt Jr. being named the American League MVP runner-up last season, and with that pick they selected infielder Josh Hammond out of Wesleyan Christian Academy (N.C.). More info on the PPI program can be found at the end of this release.
With the 61st overall pick in the 2nd round, the Royals selected RHP Michael Lombardi out of Tulane University (La.). They used the 71st pick selection in the Competitive Balance Round B to select LHP Justin Lamkin from Texas A&M University. With their final selection on Night 1 of the Draft, they selected RHP Cameron Millar out of Alhambra High School (Calif.) with the 97th pick in Round 3.
Gamble, 19, is a native of Des Moines, Iowa, who left home at the age of 14 to attend IMG Academy. He is currently committed to play baseball at Vanderbilt University (Tenn.). According to Maxpreps.com, he batted .374 (74-for-198) across three seasons with IMG, including .413 (31-for-75) with 4 home runs, 6 triples, 8 doubles, 29 runs and 30 RBI as a senior, a 1.324 OPS. He only struck out 6 times in 91 plate appearances this season, while drawing 10 walks.
Hammond, 18, was ranked as the No. 16 overall prospect by Perfect Game and is currently committed to play baseball at Wake Forest University (N.C.). He slashed .471/.613/.882 (40-for-85, 1.495 OPS) with 41 runs scored, 28 RBI, 11 doubles, 3 triples and 6 home runs as a senior, polishing off a 4-year career as a starter at Wesleyan Christian, according to Maxpreps.com. He also pitched in high school, logging 255 strikeouts in 155.1 innings pitched. Hammond earned NCISAA All-State honors after leading Wesleyan to a Class 4A championship and was named to the MaxPreps All-American Second Team. He pitched in 2 games for Team USA’s 18U squad in 2024, including 3.0 innings of 1-run ball vs. Panamá in the gold medal game.
Lombardi, 21, pitched in parts of three seasons at Tulane University (La.), where he posted a 3.82 ERA (48 ER in 113.0 IP) and 154 strikeouts, while earning 8 wins and 16 saves. As a junior this season, he appeared in 23 games (6 starts) and earned 11 saves while pitching to a 2.14 ERA (10 ER in 42.0 IP), as well as 73 strikeouts (12.3 K/9). He earned Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-State Team Honorable Mention as well as a selection to the All-AAC Second Team as a sophomore after striking out 53 batters in 41.2 innings of work, an 11.4 K/9. He also hit during all three of his seasons at Tulane, and was a career .258 hitter, including a .273/.392/.453 slashline in 2025. He graduated from Fox Lane High School (N.Y.), where he was a National Honor Society member as well as a two-year letterwinner in basketball. Some of his accolades on the diamond included three All League selections, two All Section selections, two League MVPs and a pair of First Team All-County honors. He had a career .425 batting average, and had more career intentional walks than strikeouts.
Lamkin, 21, started 15 games at Texas A&M University this season and posted a 3.42 ERA (32 ER in a team-high 84.1 IP) with 98 strikeouts (10.5 K/9), just 19 walks (2.0 BB/9) and a team-best 7 quality starts. In three seasons (53 games, 41 starts) with the Aggies, he struck out 260 batters across 209.1 innings (11.2 K/9). Prior to attending Texas A&M, he graduated from Calallen High School (Texas), where he recorded all 21 outs via the strikeout in a no-hitter over Kerrville Tivy on March 11, 2022, and later that year was named to the Class 4A All-State Third Team by the Texas Sportswriters Association.
Millar, 18, just finished his senior season at Alhambra High School (Calif.), where he went 7-1 with a 0.11 ERA (1 ER in 64.0 IP) with 117 strikeouts (49.8 K%) and just 18 walks (7.7 BB%), per his Maxpreps.com page. He didn’t allow an extra-base hit, scattering 23 singles throughout his final year. Over three seasons, he went 20-8 with a 0.45 ERA (12 ER in 187.0 IP) and 268 strikeouts (37.5 K%) and just 53 walks (7.4 BB%). He did bat as well, mostly through his sophomore and junior seasons, combining to hit .221 (19-for-86) with 2 home runs. Only one player from Alhambra High School has made it to the Majors, and that was current Angels reliever Robert Stephenson. Millar is committed to the University of Arizona.
As part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2022, the Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) was implemented as a way to encourage teams to promote their best young players to the Majors as early as possible. Part of this, per MLB.com’s Joe Trezza, states: “Players who made an Opening Day roster and accrued the service time but didn’t factor in any awards that year retain PPI eligibility. They need to place in the top three for MVP or Cy Young (Award voting) before hitting arbitration. Witt Jr. became the first player to achieve this in 2024, when his top-3 AL MVP finish earned Kansas City a PPI pick in the 2025 Draft. Witt retained his eligibility from 2022, when he made his MLB debut for Kansas City on Opening Day.”
The Draft will conclude tomorrow beginning at 10:30 a.m. CT with rounds 4-20, exclusively on MLB.com.
