Kansas City is home to Blue Valley Southwest High School graduate Ben Kudrna. But as the Kansas City Royals pitching prospect prepares for Saturday’s Major League Baseball Futures Game as part of All-Star Game weekend in Arlington, Texas, there will be plenty of familiar faces there, too.
Kudrna, pitching this season for the Quad City River Bandits in the Class A Midwest League as part of the Royals’ farm system, was born in Kansas City, but temporarily lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area because of his father’s work.
“All my elementary years were down there in Dallas, which I loved,” said Kudrna before his departure from the River Bandits to go to Arlington this week. “I’ve still got some friends that are down there I might catch up with since it’s their summer, and they’re back home.”
He’s one of two players from Royals system playing
Kudrna had his final tuneup Tuesday night in a brief pitching outing for the River Bandits at home against the Peoria Chiefs. His record this season is 4-4 with a 3.20 ERA.
Kudrna and Gavin Cross, an outfielder with the Royals’ AA affiliate Northwest Arkansas, were the two Royals prospects selected for the MLB’s Futures Game, a seven-inning contest that features the top prospects in the minor leagues.
The American League team will be managed by newly minted Hall of Famer and former Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre. Also, former Rangers and University of Missouri standout Ian Kinsler will be the bench coach for the National Leaguers.
“Talk about full-circle moments, where it’s like 15 years ago I was sitting there with their jerseys on watching them play, and now they’re coaching me in the (Futures) All-Star game,” said Kudrna who attended several Rangers games while in elementary school.
But he still considers the Royals his favorite team, and when Kudrna takes the mound, all the idolatry will be set aside.
“The competitive level of me is super-excited because you get to face the best of the best right now,” said Kudrna. “Guys that are in Double-A and Triple-A are knocking on the door (to the big leagues).”
Kudrna graduated from BV Southwest in 2021
As a senior three years ago, Kudrna led the Timberwolves to a state championship and was named the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year.
After his career at Blue Valley Southwest, Kudrna had a choice of pitching in college for Louisiana State University, a tradition baseball power in the SEC, or for the Royals in the minors.
He chose going directly to the minor leagues after being drafted by his hometown club in the second round of the Major League Baseball draft.
“If you’re 18 or 19, especially in professional baseball, they’re going to put on roughly the same path as you would through college,” said Kudrna, who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 175 pounds. “You’re going to get stronger. You’re going to progress. You’re going to get faster, more explosive.”
He added: “No regrets from me. I would say, watching some of these (minor league) games, from pitching ability and from the intellectual side of things, I’ve learned a lot more from coaching and seeing professional hitters than I would have from college.”
Blue Valley Southwest baseball coach Tyler Kincaid said he saw Kudrna’s pitching potential as a sophomore with the Timberwolves.
“We had a tough little stretch, so we were actually in a practice after a loss, and he got on the mound and took over,” said Kincaid. “Then he started pitching more and more.”
Kudrna has found that one of the bigger challenges in the minors is getting stadium’s public address announcers to pronounce his name correctly. (It’s KOO-der-nuh.)
“Always a laugh,” he said. “I need to start a sheet of paper for every announcer that says it before the game when I’m warming up. I always listen and in my head I think, ‘I wonder how bad they’re going to botch it this time.’”
Hearing his name called (correctly) at Kauffman Stadium some day remains his ultimate dream.
