The Kansas City Royals selected Arizona pitcher Hunter Alberini 338th overall in the 11th round of the 2025 Major League Baseball draft on Monday. Alberini was the sixth Arizona player selected in the 2025 MLB Draft, surpassing the four Wildcats chosen in 2024.
Alberini had one win and no losses with a 3.48 earned run average in 18 appearances, pitching 20.2 innings, allowing 27 hits, seven walks and two hit batters with 33 strikeouts in his lone season with Arizona in 2025. In 99 batters faced, Alberini allowed only three doubles and a home run as the only extra-base hits against him.
Alberini was the second Arizona pitcher selected in the 2025 MLB Draft. Julian Tonghini was selected 201st overall by the Washington Nationals in the seventh round. Alberini was the eighth of 10 pitchers selected by Kansas City through their 13th-round pick.
Alberini is the first player from Arizona drafted by Kansas City since starting pitcher J. C. Cloney was selected in the ninth round, 270th overall, of the 2017 MLB Draft. The Minnesota Twins selected pitcher Michael Carpenter from Madison College with the 338th pick in the 11th round of the 2024 MLB Draft.
Feeling like Royalty! 👑@HuntAlberini01 has Kansas City calling 🥳 pic.twitter.com/IohEL6KfXr
— Arizona Baseball (@ArizonaBaseball) July 14, 2025
Carpenter currently pitches for Fort Myers in the Florida State League. Alberini will likely be assigned to the Royals Rookie team in the Arizona Complex League, Columbia Fireflies in the Carolina League or the High-A Quad City River Bandits in the Midwest League. Quad City is the most unlikely of the three.
Alberini pitched two years at Umpqua Community College (2021-22) in Douglas County, Oregon, and two years at the College of Southern Nevada (2023-24) in Clark County, near Las Vegas. The one season at Arizona was the only one Alberini pitched above junior college.
Alberini pitched one scoreless inning in the NCAA Tournament, allowing one walk with a strikeout in a 14-0 Arizona win over Cal Poly in the Eugene Regional Championship Game as the Wildcats advanced to the Chapel Hill Super Regional. At 6'2 and 206 pounds, Alberini has a good frame for a pitcher