This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

With less than 24 hours to go until the 2024 MLB Draft kicked off, the Royals made a major change to their Draft board and strategy when they traded No. 2 prospect Cayden Wallace and their Competitive Balance Round A pick (No. 39 overall) to the Nationals for right-handed reliever Hunter Harvey.

It’s a move that the Royals, at 52-44 and a game behind the Red Sox (52-42) for the final American League Wild Card spot entering Sunday’s series finale, believe will help them win right now and in the near future, given Harvey can not be a free agent until after the 2025 season.

It also greatly affects what they’ll do Sunday night when the Draft starts at 7 p.m. ET, and their plan overall. The No. 39 pick was slotted at $2,395,000, which the Royals lost from their overall bonus pool. That’s dropped to $13,023,300, eighth most among the 30 teams.

“I don’t want to comment exactly what our strategy will be right now, but there’s significant money that’s not in our Draft pool right now,” general manager J.J. Picollo said Saturday. “[Scouting director] Brian Bridges was aware, the entire staff was aware, that this was a possibility. They build out that board, the best available player on down, and then the flexibility that you may or may not have will affect who you can actually select. It’ll have an effect on who we’re able to draft tomorrow, but Brian would have been prepared going into [Sunday] night either way, whether we had the money or not.

“It’s a little less than $2.4 million that we lose out of our pool, but thinking about both ends, our Major League club and our future, we still thought this was the best avenue for us to secure prospects and not go crazy trying to give up too much. The Draft pick was one thing we were willing to give up.”

Bridges has certainly been kept on his toes in his first year as scouting director with the Royals. In December, Kansas City was assigned the No. 6 pick in the Draft Lottery, a shock to the organization that entered the day tied with Oakland and Colorado for the best odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick at 18.3% each. The Royals also saw the Guardians (No. 1) and the White Sox (No. 5) jump ahead of them.

And now the board changes again, going from three picks on Day 1 of the Draft to two -- their first- and second-round picks. This is Bridges’ first year running the Royals’ Draft room after they hired him last September, bringing a new voice to the scouting department. Known best for his time in Atlanta, Bridges played an instrumental role in the selection of Jason Heyward in 2007, and he is also credited with the signings of Craig Kimbrel, Alex Wood and Mike Minor. His first year as the scouting director in 2015, the Braves selected Kolby Allard, Mike Soroka, Austin Riley and A.J. Minter in the first 75 picks.

Bridges had spent the last few years as a national crosschecker for the Giants, working closely with general manager Farhan Zaidi and vice president/baseball analytics Paul Bien. Now, he’s been given another opportunity to run a Draft.

“I’m very fortunate that J.J. and his executive team gave me another shot,” Bridges said. “You look at it like a new beginning. What was in the past is in the past, and I was fortunate when I got let go in Atlanta that I got to spend a lot of time with Farhan and the staff in San Francisco. I’m super grateful for that. Here, there’s excitement for sure.”

Let’s break down what Sunday night and the next two days might look like:

MLB Draft details
Day 1 of the Draft begins at 6 p.m. CT on Sunday, airing live on MLB Network, ESPN and MLB’s digital platforms.

Every pick on Monday (Day 2) and Tuesday (Day 3) can be seen starting at 1 p.m. CT on MLB.TV, MLB.com and the MLB app.

Royals’ Draft breakdown
First pick and bonus slot: No. 6 with a slot of $7,213,800

Additional first-day picks: No. 41 (second round)

Total bonus pool: $13,023,300

Who lands at No. 6?
At No. 6, the Royals’ selection will depend a little on who falls to them, and there’s a lot up in the air about how exactly that board will fall. There’s a ton of college talent at the top of this Draft, led by the hitters and a few pitchers, too. Any of them could fit well into Kansas City’s system and could immediately be one of its top prospects, if not No. 1.

The Royals have been linked to college pitching ahead of the Draft, as Chase Burns and Hagan Smith could both fit well in their system. But recent mock drafts indicate that the club could lean toward selecting big bats early on -- specifically first baseman/left-hander Jac Caglianone (No. 3 Draft prospect) and shortstop Bryce Rainer (No. 10 Draft prospect). It was previously assumed that Caglianone wouldn't fall to Kansas City, but MLB Pipeline expert Jim Callis has the University of Florida star going to the Royals in the latest mock draft.

If one of the players who is expected to go at the very top of the Draft -- Georgia outfielder Charlie Condon, Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana, West Virginia shortstop JJ Wetherholt, the aforementioned Caglianone -- falls to the Royals, they could pounce on a very talented college bat.

As for the Royals’ second pick happening on Day 1, as well as the subsequent 18 rounds across Day 2 and 3, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them go with the upside strength of this Draft. Pitching is always needed.

“There are a few that separate themselves, but there’s a lot of them in one area,” Bridges said of the high school pitching in this Draft. “They’re all bunched up there right together. Left-handers and right-handers that all fit in that area. … I look at it this way. If you’re going to be successful at anything, you’re going to have to assume some risk. I always say that if your process is right and we’re able to put the players in line the way we want them -- the upside play, if it’s high school, then that’s the route we’ll go.

“I’ve got gray hairs from doing this before, and there is a lot of risk in this. But I always say that you’ve got to have risks to get a good reward every now and then.”