Ten things to know about Travis Wood

The Royals have added more pitching depth by signing left-hander Travis Wood to a two-year, $12 million deal. Here are ten quick facts about the newest Royals pitcher.

• Travis Wood is from Bryant, Arkansas just outside of Little Rock. The city now has street named “Travis Wood Way”.

• Travis Wood was selected in the second round of the 2005 draft by the Reds. He would begin his professional career in rookie ball with former Royals pitcher Johnny Cueto as his teammate.
• Travis Wood tossed eight perfect innings against the Phillies in his third career start before giving up a double to Carlos Ruiz in the ninth. The Reds lost 1-0.
• Travis Wood was traded to the Cubs before the 2012 season with two other players for pitcher Sean Marshall. His manager was current Royals hitting coach Dale Sveum.
• Travis Wood was named to the 2013 All-Star Game as the lone Cubs representative but did not get in the game because he started a game two days before the Midsummer Classic.
• Travis Wood turned down a four-year contract around $30 million before the 2014 season.

“You can always look back on things like that and kick yourself or say you should have,” the left-hander said Sunday. “Or if you sign one, you might say, `I shouldn’t have done that after the year I had.’ There’s pros and cons to both. But I don’t look back on it. It was part of the game. It happened. You move on.”

• Travis Wood is usually the first one at the ballpark. But he’s not working out or anything.

“Back in Double-A, if I wanted to hit with the hitting coach, I had to get there before everyone,” Wood explained early Monday afternoon. “So I had to get to the field at 12:30 or 1 p.m. every day for a night game just to get 20 minutes with him.”

“It’s just my routine now,” Wood said. “Joe and I talked last year and I said, ‘It’s just a routine. I don’t work out for four hours or anything.”....

"He's a couch potato. He likes his TV. He is who he is,” Maddon said. “He likes to sit on his porch back home and stare into the woods and watch rain, so I guess it's OK."

• Travis Wood played five innings in left field last year, making this impressive catch at the wall.

Honestly, with Travis, you just treat him like a position player. I'm that comfortable with him. You can put him out there. He processes everything well. I had no concerns about that, about having a pitcher go play the outfield, taking an outfielder out. If we didn't have Travis available, I probably would not have done that.

-Cubs Manager Joe Maddon

• Travis Wood has hit nine home runs in 309 career plate appearances in the regular season. He is just the second relief pitcher ever to hit a home run in a post-season game, joining Rosy Ryan when he homered in Game Two of the 2016 National League Division Series against the Giants. And he let everyone know about it.

“The worst thing about Travis Wood,” Cubs catcher David Ross said, “is I’m gonna have to listen to his crap the whole way to San Francisco. He’s gonna get a couple cocktails in him, and then he’s gonna get diarrhea of the mouth. He swears he’s such a good hitter, so I’ve been all over him about stop swinging at the first pitch, and he swings at that first pitch and takes it deep. He’s gonna give it to me. He already did on the bench. I said, ‘Travis, get away from me. I’m trying to focus the game ! , and I can’t listen to your crap right now.’ ”

• Travis Wood showed up to the Chicago Cubs 2016 Championship Rally wearing a camoflauged vest with nothing underneath. He later removed the vest and spent much of the rally shirtless.

Hopefully we’ll be seeing him shirtless this October.