Kansas City Royals
BALTIMORE, Md.—The Kansas City Royals today announced their roster for the Wild Card Series.
The Royals will carry 11 pitchers into today’s series opener in Baltimore, led by starting pitchers Cole Ragans (Game 1), Seth Lugo (Game 2) and Michael Wacha (Game 3, if necessary). The bullpen will consist of left-handed pitchers Kris Bubic, Sam Long, Daniel Lynch IV and Angel Zerpa, and right handers Lucas Erceg, Michael Lorenzen, John Schreiber and Brady Singer.
Kansas City will have 15 position players on the active roster, led by Captain Salvador Perez, All-Star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, who is returning from the IL following a right thumb fracture that he suffered on Aug. 29. Dairon Blanco, Kyle Isbel, MJ Melendez, Tommy Pham and Hunter Renfroe will man the outfield, and they will carry infielders Paul DeJong, Maikel Garcia, Yuli Gurriel, Adam Frazier, Garrett Hampson and Michael Massey, as well as catcher Freddy Fermin.
Gurriel, 40, will bring the most postseason experience, having played in 86 postseason games with Houston from 2017-23, while Perez returns to the postseason for the first time since the Royals last World Series title in 2015 and enters the series 12 games shy of George Brett’s franchise record for postseason games (43). Others to have previous postseason experience include Pham (31 games), Renfroe (23), DeJong (14), Wacha (8), Frazier (7), Lorenzen (4), Lugo (3) and Hampson (3). The Wild Card Series will mark the first postseason experience for Bubic, Long, Lynch IV, Zerpa, Erceg, Schreiber, Singer, Witt Jr., Pasquantino, Blanco, Isbel, Melendez, Garcia, Massey and Fermin.