Former Top Royals Draft Pick's Fight To Reach Majors Picks Up Steam

Gavin Cross looked like a rising star when the Royals made him their first pick in the 2022 amateur draft. A spot in the Kauffman Stadium outfield seemed a lock for the Virginia Tech slugger. But just a shade past the midpoint of his fifth professional season, Cross’s battle to reach the major leagues continues.

And at first glance, his cumulative 2026 stats at Triple-A Omaha suggest his big league debut won’t come this year — after going 1-for-4 and driving in a run against Columbus Sunday, Cross was slashing a mediocre .211/.293/.306 with just four homers, 19 RBI, and a .599 OPS in 70 games.

Dive a little deeper, though, and you’ll find more to the story. Much like he did during last season’s second half at Double-A Northwest Arkansas (more on that in a moment), Cross has turned an ice-cold bat hot and revived thoughts that he is, indeed, what the Royals thought him to be when they took him with the ninth overall 2022 selection.

His transformation at the plate after an agonizingly slow start to this season has been encouraging, and could have the Royals thinking about putting him on their list of candidates for September's roster expansion … or perhaps for an even sooner call-up.

Royals Prospect Gavin Cross Came Alive in May  

Despite giving the Royals a nice show in spring training this year — he homered twice, knocked in seven runs, and hit .270 in 37 at-bats, and blasted a home run in the club's Spring Breakout Game — Cross seemed lost after moving up to Triple-A for the first time to begin the regular campaign. He went 1-for-15 in March and was slashing a miserable, homerless .100/.209/.154 when his .108 April came to a merciful end.

Then came a 2-for-4 effort against Toledo on May 16. There was nothing spectacular about getting two singles, but that pair of hits triggered a special seven-game stretch — going 11-for-28 (.392). Cross hit safely in all seven Omaha contests and collected three hits once and two hits twice. The outburst improved his line from .128/.233/.162 to .179/.261/.262.

But the good times didn’t end there. He finished with a .265 average for May, a remarkable 157 points better than he’d managed in April, and through Sunday was slashing .275/.359/.420 in 21 June games.

Is Gavin Cross’ Turnaround For Real?

That’s the big question. After all, the Royals have seen this before — Cross, remember, was hitting only .152 for Northwest Arkansas when the 2025 baseball calendar turned from May to June, but caught fire by hitting .291, belting a dozen home runs, and driving in 44 runs over the season's final four months. He finished the Naturals’ campaign with 17 homers, 64 RBI, and a .241/.291/.413 line dragged down by his awful start to the season. But those numbers confirmed he was capable of repeating the decent stats he’d put up the year before, when he posted a .342 OBP, batted a serviceable .261, homered 15 times, and drove in 59 runs in 109 games.

So it is that this season is beginning to bear a striking resemblance to last for Cross. How the 2026 campaign will end for him remains to be seen, but if he keeps getting the job done at the plate, it just might give Cross his first taste of the major leagues.

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