Kansas City Royals’ Prospect L.P. Langevin Has ‘Unhittable’ Fastball

L.P. Langevin is one wildly unpredictable roller-coaster ride upon a pitcher’s mound. The Kansas City Royals’ prospect has a fastball that can be unhittable – or unwatchable.

“You can’t really tell what it’s going to do,” Scouting Director Brian Bridges said of Langevin’s fastball after Kansas City picked the right-hander in the fourth round of the 2024 MLB Draft. “Hitters will tell you, when he throws a ball that’s a hittable pitch, they swing at it like they didn’t see it or they swing right through it.

"He’s such a competitor and doesn’t think about those things, and he hasn’t been exposed to a lot of analytics and things that can help him. He’s a fun guy.”

Thus far in 2026, the 23-year-old has faced 151 batters. Seventy have struck out Only 12 have hit safely. Fabulous. Fantastic. Except … Langevin has allowed as many earned runs as hits in 35 1/3 innings of tightrope-walking relief for the Quad City River Bandits of the Class A Midwest League. That is due to his walking 27, hitting 4 batters and uncorking 7 wild pitches.

It’s all due to a fastball that isn’t expressly fast yet zips and zooms erratically as it (sometimes) approaches the strike zone – or spins maddeningly wide or high. Thrown from a low three-quarters to sidearm delivery, the pitch has incredible spin rate that carries it past a batter’s swing while sometimes veering in towards a right-handed batter or impossibly away from a lefty swinger.

The pitch averages about 92-95 mph, and when thrown near the zone, the results are wonderful. When he can’t command it, Langevin doesn’t yet have a complete arsenal of pitches he can rely upon to bail him out.

He’s a tantalizing work in progress.

Oh, Canada!

Born in Quebec City, Canada, Louis-Phillippe Langevin sounds more like a hockey player than relief pitcher. And that is what he was until he started to show interest in baseball while attending high school at École Secondaire de La Seigneurie.

He went to Wabash (IN) Community College for a year. Then he put up impressive numbers in 2024 at Louisiana-Lafayette, fanning 106 and allowing only 40 hits in 62 1/3 innings with a 6-1 record and 7 saves. He also walked 33 and had an ordinary 3.73 ERA as the Rajun’ Cajuns went 41-21.

Langevin hopes to at least try and follow the footsteps of another pitcher from the school. Drafted in the third round in 1971, Ron Guidry had some of the greatest seasons in New York Yankees history. “Louisiana Lightning” was the 1978 AL Cy Young Award winner after going 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA. In 14 seasons, all with New York, he had a 170-91 record and 3.29 ERA.

Current pitchers Spencer Arrighetti (Astros), Brandon Young (Orioles) and Hogan Harris (Athletics) are among 14 MLB hurlers in history from Louisiana-Lafayette.

Langevin got $597,500 to sign as the 105th overall choice in 2024. Nine men picked at No. 105 have pitched in the majors, including Cliff Lee, chosen at that spot by the Montreal Expos in 2000. The lefty had a 143-91 career record and won the 2008 AL Cy Young Award for Cleveland with a 22-3 record and league-leading 2.54 ERA.

The Royals have held the 105th pick six times and selected three guys who got to the majors. Catcher Mike Colbern (1973) played in 80 MLB games, and right-hander Rich Gale (1975) had a seven-year career and helped Kansas City get to the 1980 World Series.

The Royals’ other pick at No. 105 was in 1986, a muscular outfielder from Auburn University who became an American athletic icon. Bo Jackson became a superstar running back in the NFL and slugging sensation in Kansas City. A devastating hip injury in an NFL playoff game in 1991 stopped his football career. He tried to keep playing baseball and hit 32 homers in parts of three seasons before retiring in 1994.

Wildest Of Wild Things

Langevin’s command is not where he and the Royals want it to be – but is much better than many legendary pitchers with wild streaks.

Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan struggled to harness his fastball almost as much as batter failingly flailed at it for 24 seasons. Ryan struck out more batters than anybody in history, 5,714. He also walked more than anybody, 2,795.

Despite pitching a record seven no-hitters and being mostly unhittable, Ryan had an all-time record of 324-292. His .526 winning percentage is tied for 630th in history.

Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Bob Feller were notoriously wild early in their careers but set strikeout and no-hit records, too.

Some pitchers just could not overcome wildness. Rick Ankiel looked so promising for the St. Louis Cardinals until a performance in a 2000 playoff game. It ruined the talented athlete’s confidence on the mound and he became a slugging outfielder with a great throwing arm … and is always mentioned as a player “that could have been” great.

A left-hander generally considered to have the best fastball ever never threw a pitch in the major leagues. He was often the best and worst pitcher you ever saw.

Steve Dalkowski struck out an amazing 1,324 batters in 956 innings in the minors. He also walked 1,236 and had a 46-80 career record.

At age 18 in the Baltimore Orioles’ farm system in 1958, he gave up only 22 hits and struck out 121 in 62 innings. Unfortunately, he also walked 129 and threw 37 wild pitches while compiling a 1-8 record and 8.13 ERA.

How about his season at Stockton (CA) in 1960? In 170 innings, he gave up only 105 hits, fanned 262 and walked 262, going 7-15.

He hurt his arm during spring training in 1963 and retired at age 26 in 1965.

Langevin’s Future

Despite his unique ability to keep batters from making contact, Langevin was ranked as only No. 26 among Royals prospects by MLB.com in 2025.

He needs to develop some type of breaking ball or ideally a good changeup coming out of the same arm slot as his fastball. If he can consistently throw a good change and the heater for strikes, he has a chance to be a very reliable reliever.

The Royals are working through similar issues with Luinder Avila. The right-hander helped Venezuela win the 2026 World Baseball Classic this spring but has been quite inconsistent for thee Royals.

The Kansas City Royals have described Langevin as a “very willing worker”, eager to to take instruction. Other teams have seen what he can – and cannot do, too. They may be interested in acquiring him in a deal at the upcoming trade deadline. Or the Royals might remain patient and see if he can, indeed, develop from wild thing to real thing.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com