When the Kansas City Royals joined the American League in 1969, one early idea by owner Ewing Kauffman was to build the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy in Florida. It was an attempt find quality athletes without much baseball experience and train them to become baseball players. The players lived and trained at the academy and played games in the Gulf Coast League. The best players would then move on up through the Royals' minor league system.
The academy was discontinued in 1974 due to costs but paid big dividends for the big league franchise, most notably with five-time All-Star second baseman Frank White, signed as an amateur free agent in 1970. U.L. Washington, the starting shortstop on the 1980 World Series team, was another unsigned free agent and academy graduate. Former Rangers manager Ron Washington was another player who came through the academy.
Anyway, it was another way to find baseball talent. The Royals built their successful run from 1976 to 1985 by finding talent. They used the academy. They traded for talented young players like Amos Otis, Hal McRae and John Mayberry who hadn't been given a chance with their original teams. They drafted George Brett and Bret Saberhagen.
One thing that happened after 1985, however, was as the rest of the baseball world dug deep into Latin America, the Royals failed in finding talent from that important pipeline. Go through the rosters of the 1990s and 2000s Royals and you'll find very few Latin players of impact. The one major success story was Carlos Beltran, drafted in the second round out of Puerto Rico in 1995 (Puerto Rican players are subject to the draft). Angel Berroa, acquired from Oakland in the Johnny Damon trade, won Rookie of the Year honors in 2003 but was a flop after that. Jose Rosado, a Puerto Rican drafted out of a Texas junior college was a two-time All-Star but got injured. From 1990 through 2010, the only other Latino pitchers to even 5.0 career WAR with the Royals were Joakim Soria, Hipolito Pichardo and Luis Aquino. Other than Beltran, the only other Latino position players to earn 5.0 WAR over that 20-year period were Jose Offerman and Rey Sanchez, both developed by other organizations.
The 2014 Royals, however, have an important Latino presence, led by three homegrown players: Catcher Salvador Perez, signed out of Venezuela in 2006; Dominican reliever Kelvin Herrera, also signed in 2006; and starter Yordano Ventura, signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2008. None of three are even 25 yet.
Ventura is a classic scouting story, signed for $28,000 as a skinny teenager who throw in the upper 80s. But the Royals liked the arm action and two years later he was throwing in the upper 90s. He's remained healthy throughout his professional career and his rookie season has been enormously successful as he's developed into the Royals' No. 2 starter. Herrera, another short right-hander, missed nearly two full years of minor league action with elbow problems, but has remained healthy since moving to the bullpen in 2011 and has maintained his 100-mph velocity. Perez was never rated as a top-100 prospect but has become one of the best defensive catchers in the majors. Perez first reached the majors in 2011; before that season, Baseball Prospectus named him the 20th-best prospect ... in the Kansas City system.
Beyond those three, shortstop Alcides Escobar came over from the Brewers in the Zack Greinke trade and second baseman Omar Infante was signed as a free agent.
The Royals have continued to invest in Latin American. Shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, son of former major leaguer Raul, was signed for a $2 million bonus in 2011, had a disappointing season at Class A Wilmington but is considered one of the Royals' top prospects. Outfielder Elier Hernandez, signed the same year for $3 million, hasn't developed as hoped, but was another example of the Royals spending money for Latino prospects.
The James Shields trade that general manager Dayton Moore engineered two years ago has received a lot of credit for the Royals' surge to a 3-0 lead in the ALCS, but it was finding quality players in Latin America that has made just as a big an impact.