LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The 2020 MLB draft has come and gone and there was plenty of Arkansas talent that got picked.
Little Rock Trojan catcher and potential Sun Belt player of the year candidate, Kale Emshoff didn’t hear his name called. D1 Baseball had him as the No. 87 best college prospect. MLB.com had him as the No. 146 draft prospect and projected him to get drafted between rounds 3-5.
That didn’t happen for the red-shirt junior. But, when the draft concluded every major league team tried to sign Kale as a free agent. After the long day of interviews was over, Kale decided to sign with the Kansas City Royals.
The Texas native had to sit out all of 2019 due to Tommy John surgery, then only got to play 17 games in 2020. But, in those 17 games Kale smacked seven home runs (8th in nation and led conference), had a .414 batting average (2nd in Sun Belt), while also led the conference in slugging and on-base percentage.
Fox 16’s Troy Lynch spoke with Kale and Little Rock head coach Chris Curry about the signing process and how he feels about starting his professional baseball career.
