MLB schedule-makers didn’t do Royals any favors with brutal stretch to start the season

By Pete Grathoff

Updated March 27, 2025 11:03 AM

While the pomp and circumstance surrounding opening day is fun, the Royals know it’s just one of 162 games they play this season.

But manager Matt Quatraro is pleased about who the Royals will play in their season-opening series, starting Thursday at Kauffman Stadium. Cleveland is the defending American League Central champions, and the Royals’ goal is to dethrone the Guardians in 2025.

“These guys beat us. They beat us by six or seven games last year, right?” Quatraro said Wednesday. “And they’re the standard of the division. We have to play up to their standard and exceed that in order to win the division. There’s other teams that are clearly squarely in the mix, but at the same time, why not put yourself up against a team that won the division last year, and let’s tee it up.”

While Quatraro approves of the Royals facing the Guardians, the MLB schedule-makers didn’t do Kansas City any favors. Seven of the first eight series are against teams that made the playoffs a year ago, and five series against teams that won a division title last year.

Here is a closer look with a note on a team in parenthesis.

March 27-30: vs. Guardians (won AL Central)

March 31-April 2: at Brewers (won NL Central)

April 4-6: vs. Orioles (No. 1 wild card team)

April 7-10: vs. Twins

April 11-13: at Guardians

April 14-16: at Yankees (won AL East)

April 17-20: at Tigers (wild card team)

April 25-27: Astros (won AL West)

The only non-playoff team in that stretch is the Twins, who have won the season series against the Royals in each of the last three years.

But, as he often said a year ago, Quatraro will not be looking ahead.

“We’ve talked about this a lot: We can talk about, ‘This is a tough stretch of games’ or ‘This is an easy stretch of games,’ or ‘How many games do you have to win?’” Quatraro said. “And none of that matters, right, unless you take care of today.”