Asa Lacy Throws More Than Just Heat

The Royals were stunned when Texas A&M lefthander Asa Lacy was still available with the fourth overall selection in the 2020 draft.

“Quite frankly, we didn’t think he’d be there,” said Royals scouting director Lonnie Goldberg, who envisions Lacy as a top-of-the-rotation talent.

Though Lacy had yet to throw a pitch in a minor league game, he was grouped with two teams of advanced prospects for a six-week tutoring session at the Royals’ fall instructional league in Kansas City. He joined fellow pitching prospects Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch, Jonathan Bowlan and Alec Marsh at Kauffman Stadium.

“He’s an incredible physical specimen,” Goldberg said of Lacy. “He takes care of his body.”

He is listed at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds and added 20 pounds of muscle and 10 mph to his velocity since his college freshman season.

Lacy has a fastball that touches 98 mph and consistently sits in the mid 90s, but he throws more than just heat.

“He has three other offspeed pitched to go with his velocity,” Goldberg said. “He’s got three major weapons that he can use and at any given time. They can all be plus pitches.”

Lacy was off to a dominant start as a junior before the pandemic shut down the season in March. In 24 innings, he struck out 46, waked eight, had a 0.75 ERA and a 0.71 WHIP. In 38 career games for the Aggies, he compiled a 2.32 ERA with 178 strikeouts in 128 innings.

His first name comes his Swedish great-grandfather Asah, and the biblical king Asa who ruled Judah for 41 years and was a descendant of King David. The Royals prefer to call him future ace, and they don’t believe it will be too long before the future arrives in the majors.

Lacy grew up in Texas admiring lefthander Clayton Kershaw, who went to high school in the Dallas area before the Dodgers drafted him in the first round in 2006. Lacy acknowledges while growing up his parents would permit him to stay up late to watch and take notes on Kershaw’s West Coast starts.

ROYALTIES

— In addition to their Kansas City instructional league, the Royals also fielded two teams of younger prospects in Surprise, Ariz., that would play games until mid November against other organizations. That group included 2020 draft pitchers Christian Chamberlain, Will Klein and Ben Hernandez; and outfielder Tyler Gentry. Hernandez was a second-round pick out of an Illinois high school. 

— Other prominent prospects the Royals sent to the Arizona instructional league included Dominican shortstop Wilmin Candelario, who they signed as a 17-year-old for $847,500 in 2018, and 19-year-old lefthanded-hitting outfielder Darryl Collins from The Netherlands.