In the hours prior to starter Danny Duffy throwing the first pitch of an opening day loss to the White Sox on Thursday, the Royals announced a 25-man roster that matched in very few ways what the club entered spring training with nearly seven weeks ago.
They added first baseman Lucas Duda, outfielder Jon Jay and reliever Justin Grimm and executed a one-year reunion with All-Star third baseman Mike Moustakas.
While they managed to trim $14 million from their 2017 payroll (about $143 million) with a pair of trades in January, they added about $12 million more with those spring-training signings.