Ned Yost focused on keeping entire Royals roster involved early in the season
Heading into the second game of the year, rain has quickly become the calling card of this Royals season-opening series.
Thursday’s season opener featured a 1-hour, 46-minute delay. Rain and snow flurries have fallen Saturday morning, but the early forecast indicates the precipitation will begin to clear up around the time of first pitch at 1:15 p.m. at Kauffman Stadium. (Update: Royals announced first pitch has been pushed back to 1:45 p.m.)
One of the early focuses of manager Ned Yost will be finding playing time for players on his bench and his bullpen in order to keep them sharp with the Royals scheduled to play just six games in the first nine days of the season.
“I need to get guys like (Lucas) Duda in,” Yost said. “I need to get maybe Cam (Gallagher) in somewhere. To keep Duda fresh, if he’s going to come off the bench, you need to get him at-bats to keep him fresh. I’ll maybe look to DH him tomorrow, try to figure out ways to get him at-bats and keep him going too. Just trying to get everybody involved right now with the off days so nobody gets too stagnant.”
Saturday’s lineup against a right-handed pitcher includes left-handed hitting Ryan O’Hearn at first base with Frank Schwindel, a right-handed hitter, having played against the opening day starter.
The blessing and curse of bullpen options: The Royals went with nine relief pitchers on their opening day roster because they didn’t need a fourth until the second week.
Even with Ian Kennedy, Jake Diekman, Wily Peralta, Kevin McCarthy and Brad Boxberger having pitched in the opener, that still leaves Kyle Zimmer, Tim Hill, Chris Ellis and Scott Barlow as bullpen arms who haven’t pitched since the end of spring training. Zimmer pitched in the final game in Arizona on Sunday, while Hill, Ellis and Barlow last pitched in Monday’s exhibition against Triple-A Omaha.
“No doubt,” Yost said of wanting to get guys in the game to get work. “That’s what we wanted to do the other day. I didn’t want to use four guys in the ninth inning, but it didn’t bother me to get guys up and get them throwing with the off days. But yes, we need to get guys in.”
Right field merry-go-round: Whit Merrifield starts in right field again today, but Yost reiterated he will play Chris Owings in right and avoid Merrifield getting too stale at second base. With Duda likely at DH on Sunday, Soler likely will play right.
Saturday’s lineup
1. Whit Merrifield, rf
2. Adaleberto Mondesi, ss
3. Alex Gordon, lf
4. Jorge Soler, dh
5. Ryan O’Hearn, 1b
6. Chris Owings, 2b
7. Hunter Dozier, 3b
8. Martin Maldonado, c
9. Billy Hamilton, cf
Starting pitcher: Jakob Junis, rh, 0-0, 0.00
This story was originally published March 30, 2019 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Ned Yost focused on keeping entire Royals roster involved early in the season."
