KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Every big leaguer thinks their team has a chance when they arrive to spring training. The old “hope springs eternal” cliché is, after all, more apropos to Major League Baseball than perhaps any other professional sport.
It’s been a few years, though, since the Royals viewed a season with expectations rather than hope.
Not since it won back-to-back American League pennants in 2014 and ‘15 under former manager Ned Yost and went on to win its first World Series in three decades, has the long-suffering, small-market franchise begun a season with the same amount of optimism that it carries into Thursday’s opener against Cleveland at Kauffman Stadium.
