A new Opening Day, plus other important dates for Kansas City Royals fans to know
After a winter of uncertainty and anxiety, baseball is officially back and the Kansas City Royals will get spring training into full swing in the coming days in Surprise, Arizona.
The Major League Baseball owners and the Players Association reached an agreement on Thursday that ended the owners’ lockout of the players and established a new collective bargaining agreement.
The agreement came in time for MLB to still play an 162-game schedule despite Opening Day having been pushed back from its original date of March 31.
The first four series of the regular season, which had been canceled, will be played.
“It’s a great day for Major League Baseball and the Kansas City Royals,” Royals chairman and CEO John Sherman said in a statement posted on the team’s Twitter account. “We are excited to welcome our Major League players back home to Surprise. Royals baseball is back, and we are grateful to our fans for their passion and commitment.
“Together, we look forward to celebrating the game we all love on Opening Day at The K.”
The updated Royals schedule now starts Thursday, April 7, against the Cleveland Guardians at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 p.m.
Fans who held tickets to the originally scheduled April 8 home game against Cleveland can use them for Opening Day. The Royals are now off on April 8 before the series against Cleveland resumes April 9.
The Royals also said tickets for the originally scheduled April 4-7 home games against the Chicago White Sox in Kansas City are no longer valid and ticket holders have been contacted with information on how to receive a refund or credit.
Here are some key dates/changes to the MLB schedule as of Thursday:
March 13: Major League players are scheduled to report to their spring training camps by Sunday. It’s expected that some players will be on-site earlier and other traveling internationally may arrive later depending upon visa situations.
March 18: Cactus League play begins. The Royals are currently scheduled to begin their truncated spring training slate in Arizona against the Texas Rangers at Surprise Stadium.
March 22: Teams and players will exchange salary requests as part of the arbitration process. Hearings will take place during the season, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
The arbitration-eligible Royals players include left fielder Andrew Benintendi, starting pitcher Brad Keller, shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, relief pitcher Scott Barlow and backup catcher Cam Gallagher.
March 28-29: According to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy, the Royals exhibition games in Milwaukee at the end of the Cactus League play will likely be canceled. Originally, the Royals were scheduled to play in Milwaukee on March 28-29 before the season opener on March 31.
April 7: MLB Opening Day is now April 7. The Royals will host Cleveland Guardians in the first game of a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.
April 12-13: I-70 Series in St. Louis. The Royals will go across the state to face their interleague rivals in a two-game set. The series had been canceled earlier in the week when the commissioner announced Opening Day would not be before April 14.
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 7:19 PM.
