Saturday Thread: Royals at Mariners

Stephen Woods Jr. will make his first start of Spring Training. In case you haven’t paid much attention since the end of the last season - and who could blame you - he was taken as a Rule 5 Draftee last December which means he either needs to make the Royals major league roster or be offered back to the Tampa Bay Rays.

The big right-handed pitcher has swing and miss stuff with a nasty curveball but this will turn 25 midway through this season and has never pitched above High-A. He also struggled with control until last year and missed all of 2018 with a shoulder injury. He’s done well to limit home runs, though. So far this spring he has pitched three innings across two appearances and struck out only one while allowing a run on two hits and two walks. Still, the Royals pitching depth is in such a terrible place as they wait for their 2018 draft crop to bloom that it’s easy to see how he might make the roster even with a lackluster spring.

Lineup

According to Flanagan McBroom will not actually take the field as a second baseman, he’s getting a lead-off at-bat against Mariners’ left-handed starter Marco Gonzales and then will be the casualty of a defensive substitution.