Kansas City Royals Spring Training 2/20: Salary Agreements and Ned Yost’s Gall Bladder

On Tuesday, the Royals first intrasquad game of the year ended in a tie. On Wednesday, early rains threatened the second scheduled game, but cleared up enough for players to take the field.

Aug 18, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals relief pitcher Louis Coleman (31) delivers a pitch in the ninth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium. Kansas City won the game 9-4. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

Unlike Tuesday’s 5-5 tie, the pitchers held the batters in check on Wednesday. David Lough scored the only run – a solo homer off Ryan Verdugo in the top of the fifth inning. Luke Hochevar, Louis Coleman, Aaron Crow, Greg Holland and John Lamb were notable names on the mound and all got through unscathed. Lamb was reportedly solid, and I have a hunch he’s set up for a good year.

The Royals will next play on Friday when the first real spring training games start. Kansas City takes on the Texas Rangers in their first four games and have set pitching lineups for those matchups:

• Friday: Will Smith, Yordano Ventura, Justin Marks, Nathan Adcock, Sugar Ray Marimon, Michael Mariot, Blaine Boyer
• Saturday: Guillermo Moscoso, Francisley Bueno, Brian Sanches, Dan Wheeler, Ryan Verdugo, Donnie Joseph, Atahualpa Severino
• Sunday: Luis Mendoza, John Lamb, Tim Collins, Kelvin Herrera, Louis Coleman, TBA
• Monday: Chris Dwyer, Noel Arguelles, Juan Gutierrez, TBA

The primary rotation candidates are noticeably absent from those lists. Ned Yost has them slated to play in the games after the Rangers series and didn’t want them to pitch early, thrown an inning and then sit for a number of days.

-The Royals agreed to terms with twelve of their pre-arbitration players on one-year contracts:

• Greg Holland: $539,500
• Tim Collins: $534,500
• Eric Hosmer: $528,250
• Mike Moustakas: $524,500
• Elliot Johnson: $520,500
• Kelvin Herrera: $508,175
• Danny Duffy: $505,125
• Lorenzo Cain: $503,175
• Will Smith: $496,500
• Johnny Giavotella: $494,000
• David Lough: $491,625
• John Lamb: $490,000

Lamb was the only one to receive just the league minimum. Not coincidentally, he’s the only one with no major league experience. As noted in the last batch of agreements, the salary amounts are only in those amounts if the player is on the major league roster for the full season, otherwise it’s prorated by their days in the big leagues. Only Aaron Crow, Luis Mendoza, Francisley Bueno, Guillermo Moscoso and Louis Coleman are left without agreements on the 40 man roster. Those probably get resolved within the next week at the latest.

-Prior to the end of Tuesday’s intrasquad game, Ned Yost left the facility for then-unknown reasons. On Wednesday, he announced that he’d left for gall bladder surgery. After having the procedure to remove the gall bladder, Yost was back in uniform and directing workouts again.

That led to this amusing exchange where the media was asking him about his quick recovery and he suggested that if it was one of them, he’d be fine for them to take their time in recovering. He also noted that he’s been fighting with gall bladder pain for about two years, but finally caved into his wife’s demands. He then confessed to a culinary obsession that exacerbated his gall bladder pain before  the removal.