They will gather together officially for the first time in the next week on ballfields under the desert sun, finally ending the Royals’ most difficult offseason in years, if not ever.
They are still grieving the tragic death of Yordano Ventura, a loved and talented teammate, and any challenge beyond that is a light breeze in comparison. But even in the narrow and relatively irrelevant scope of baseball this has been a challenging few months for the Royals:
Unexpectedly replace your No. 3 starting pitcher after most of the deals are done, and improve an 81-81 team in both the immediate and long-term without adding payroll.