Sam Kulasingam found creative ways to pass the time during the MLB Draft.
Not knowing if his name would be called on Monday, Tuesday or at all, the recent Air Force graduate helped his mother build a small couch at their North Carolina home and relaxed with some reading.
It wasn’t until the Kansas City Royals contacted Kulasingam’s adviser at Octagon — the same agency that represented Bobby Witt Jr. as he signed a long-term extension with the team earlier this year — and expressed their intent to select him in the 13th or 14th rounds that Kulasingam finally turned on the MLB.com draft tracker.
“It seems like a lifetime is going by between each pick,” Kulasingam said as he switched on the tracker near the end of the 12th round.
Not every team follows through with their draft-day declarations, but the Royals did. They took Kulasingam with the second pick in the 13th round.
“(My name) popped up,” Kulasingam said. “I was like, ‘Oh sweet, that’s a surreal feeling.’”
Kulasingam will travel to the Royals’ complex in Surprise, Ariz., on Thursday. If all goes well with physicals, he intends to sign. He will then work at the team’s complex for a time before potentially earning an assignment to a minor league affiliate, with the Low-A Columbia (S.C.) Fireflies or High-A Quad City (Iowa) River Bandits the probable candidates.
Despite the Royals’ success (winning 52 games before the All-Star Break after winning 56…
