Just more than two weeks before opening day, Royals manager Ned Yost leaned back in his office chair on Saturday morning and held forth a stoic expression.
A reporter had lobbed a question concerning the state of the competition for the Royals’ fifth starter role — a battle that, publicly at least, involves Nathan Karns, Travis Wood and Chris Young. Yost digested the question for a moment and sought to bat it away.
No, he said, there was no separation between the three pitchers.
It is easy, of course, to question the sincerity of this posture.