Jun 29, 2020

Royals release 60-man player pool ahead of camp

Posted Jun 29, 2020 2:13 AM

The Kansas City Royals released their 60-man player pool on Sunday as those players can begin workouts this Friday at Kauffman Stadium.

The Royals added Bobby Witt, Jr. to their player pool as he was not invited to their initial spring training back in February. Witt is the Royals' top pick from the 2019 MLB Draft.

Witt and many of the Royals' top pitching prospects are in the 60-man player pool. Brady Signer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic were all high draft picks in 2018 and were in spring training back in February.

Since there probably will not be a Minor League season players not on the 40-man roster who made the 60-man player pool will not accrue service time.

“With the circumstances we’re going through,” General Manager Dayton Moore said, “there really isn’t a clear pathway to develop this year, other than this. We’re trying to accommodate as many players as we can, not just for 2020, but for 2021 and 2022.”

The Royals did not put their top draft pick this season, left-hander Asa Lacy, in the player pool.

“There was some talk about adding him,” Moore said, “but at the end of the day, we like where he is right now -- he’s got a good workout spot at College Station [Texas]. We could only have so many players on the 60. There were a lot of players left off. But hopefully there’ll be an opportunity for many of them this fall in Arizona.”

Teams will have an initial 30-man roster for opening day, July 23-24. Two weeks from then, rosters will be reduced to 28, then two weeks later to 26.

Here is the Royals' 60-man player pool:

Pitchers (32): Chance Adams, Scott Barlow, Scott Blewett, Kris Bubic, Austin Cox, Danny Duffy, Heath Fillmyer, Foster Griffin, Jesse Hahn, Tim Hill, Greg Holland, Jakob Junis, Brad Keller, Ian Kennedy, Jackson Kowar, Jorge LĂłpez, Richard Lovelady, Daniel Lynch, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Montgomery, Jake Newberry, Randy Rosario, Trevor Rosenthal, Braden Shipley, Brady Singer, Glenn Sparkman, Gabe Speier, Josh Staumont, Daniel Tillo, Stephen Woods Jr., Kyle Zimmer, Tyler Zuber

Catchers (6): Nick Dini, Cam Gallagher, MJ Melendez, Salvador Perez, Sebastian Rivero, Meibrys Viloria

Infielders (11): Humberto Arteaga, Maikel Franco, Kelvin Gutierrez, Jeison Guzman, Nicky Lopez, Ryan McBroom, Adalberto Mondesi, Ryan O'Hearn, Nick Pratto, Matt Reynolds, Bobby Witt Jr.

Outfielders (11): Hunter Dozier, Alex Gordon, Nick Heath, Kyle Isbel, Khalil Lee, Seuly Matias, Erick Mejia, Whit Merrifield, Brett Phillips, Jorge Soler, Bubba Starling