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The Royals announced their 30-man Opening Day roster on Thursday for what will be a 60-game season starting Friday.
Catchers (3): Oscar Hernandez, Salvador Perez, Meibrys Viloria
Infielders (4): Maikel Franco, Nicky Lopez, Ryan McBroom, Adalberto Mondesí
Outfielders (7): Franchy Cordero, Alex Gordon, Erick Mejia, Whit Merrifield, Brett Phillips, Jorge Soler, Bubba Starling
Pitchers (16): Scott Barlow, Ronald Bolaños, Danny Duffy, Foster Griffin, Greg Holland, Ian Kennedy, Jorge López, Richard Lovelady, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Montgomery, Trevor Rosenthal, Glenn Sparkman, Gabe Speier, Josh Staumont, Kyle Zimmer, Tyler Zuber
Injured List: Chance Adams, Cam Gallagher, Hunter Dozier, Kelvin Gutierrez, Jakob Junis, Brad Keller, Ryan O’Hearn, Randy Rosario
Bereavement List: Jesse Hahn
Brady Singer did not make the initial roster, but will be activated after Friday’s game and will be the scheduled starter for Saturday. He will join Foster Griffin and Tyler Zuber as Royals who will make their MLB debut. Fourteen Royals players will be on an Opening Day roster for the first time.
Pitchers Brad Keller and Jakob Junis will begin the season on the Injured List after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier in the month and missing time in summer camp, and will have to slowly ramp up their workload to rejoin the team. Catcher Cam Gallagher and outfielder Hunter Dozier are on the Injured List after testing positive for COVID-19, and Ryan O’Hearn has rejoined the club after testing positive a few weeks ago, but will begin the season on the Injured List as well.
Rosters were expanding to 30 this year due to the pandemic to ease pitchers into the regular season after an interrupted spring training. After two weeks, roster limits will be reduced to 28, then two weeks after that they will be reduced to 26 for the remainder of the year.
The Royals open the season Friday night in Cleveland against the Indians.