SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) — Nathan Karns has won the crowded competition for the lone vacancy in the Kansas City Royals’ rotation, getting the nod Monday from manager Ned Yost.

Karns beat out holdover Chris Young and left-hander Travis Wood for the fifth spot.

Karns was acquired Jan. 6 from Seattle for outfielder Jarrod Dyson. The 29-year-old righty hasn’t exactly been lights-out in spring training — a 7.36 ERA in four starts, allowing nine earned runs on 14 hits over 11 innings, striking out 14 and walking four.

“He’s got three `plus’ pitches,” Yost said. “We like his power. It was a tough decision. We just had to make a decision.”

Karns was 6-2 with a 5.15 ERA in 22 games, including 15 starts, last year with the Mariners before his season ended July 20 because of a herniated disk. He is 14-9 with a 4.41 ERA in 54 career games in the majors with Washington, Tampa Bay and Seattle.

“I’ve shown I’m healthy and my changeup is there,” Karns said. “Coming to camp and kind of having a smooth road with my back issue has been very positive. That was really something I was banking on to be healthy. If I came in and wasn’t healthy, that probably would have been more disappointing than anything.”

Left-hander Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy will front the rotation, while Jason Hammel, Jason Vargas and Karns will round it out.

“It’s very rewarding,” Karns said. “I was just very happy to be part of the competition, let alone win it.”

Karns knows this decision in March won’t mean much if he doesn’t produce.

“If I don’t prove myself, somebody else is going to replace me,” Karns said.

Karns’ outing Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers began badly as he allowed four runs, including a two-run homer to Ryan Braun, in the first inning. He settled down after that with three scoreless innings.

“Stop nibbling,” Karns said was his adjustment. “I was trying to be too cute on the corners and falling behind. When I got ahead, my secondary stuff was left up. I wasn’t finishing my pitches.

“After you get kicked around in the first inning, you get a little fire under you. I need to come in prepared in the first inning, make sure I’m finishing my pitches when I’m ahead in the count,” he said.

Young had a 2.13 ERA in four outings, allowing 13 hits, walking four and striking out 11 in 12 2/3 innings. Young’s 2016 worked against him as he went 1-8 with a 7.39 ERA in 13 starts, allowing 26 home runs in 56 innings, before being sent to the bullpen.

Wood signed with the Royals in the offseason with the premise he would be given a chance to compete for a rotation slot after spending all of last season in the Cubs’ bullpen. He went 2-0 with a 4.05 ERA over 13 1/3 innings.

Hammel allowed one run on three hits with one walk and five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings in a 10-6 loss to Cincinnati on Monday.

— Associated Press —

SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) — Kansas City Royals left-hander Brian Flynn is expected to be sidelined for eight weeks after falling through a barn roof at his Oklahoma residence.

The Royals said Tuesday that Flynn broke a rib and had three minor vertebrae fractures.

Flynn, who went to Wichita State, had a 2.60 ERA in one start and 35 relief appearances last season, allowing 38 hits in 55 2/3 innings. In 12 relief appearances from July 31-Sept. 6, Flynn did not allow an earned run.

Flynn appeared in just one minor league game in 2015 before a shoulder injury. The Royals acquired Flynn after the 2014 season from the Miami Marlins for pitcher Aaron Crow.

— Associated Press —

Free-agent pitcher Jason Hammel and the Kansas City Royals reached agreement on a $16 million, two-year contract Sunday, a source told ESPN’s Jim Bowden, confirming multiple reports.

The deal, pending a physical, includes a mutual option for a third year.

Hammel, 34, went 15-10 with a 3.83 ERA in 30 starts with the Chicago Cubs last season. Hammel did not pitch in the postseason. The Cubs declined Hammel’s $12 million option for 2017, which made the right-hander one of the top starters on the free-agent market.

The Cubs acquired left-hander Mike Montgomery in a July trade with Seattle, and he could replace Hammel in the rotation.

In two seasons with the Cubs, the 6-foot-6 right-hander went 33-22 with a 3.59 ERA in 78 starts. Hammel first signed with the Cubs in February 2014 and went 8-5 with a 2.98 ERA in 17 starts that season. He was traded to Oakland in the deal that sent shortstop Addison Russell to Chicago. The pitcher then re-signed with Chicago the following December for $20 million for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

— ESPN News Service —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Yordano Ventura quit school as a teenager so he could begin working a construction job to help his family make ends meet, laboring day after day in the hot sun of the Dominican Republic.

It was a chance tryout with the Kansas City Royals that changed the trajectory of his life.

Yordano wowed scouts with an electrifying fastball, the best they had seen in years, and a confident demeanor that bordered on brash and arrogant. And both of those traits served him well as he rocketed to the major leagues, helped the Royals win a long-awaited World Series championship in 2015, and became one of the most popular players in a city that embraced baseball one again.

Ventura, whose nickname “Ace” fit so perfectly, died Sunday in a car crash on a stretch of highway near the town of San Adrian in his native Dominican Republic. He was 25.

“Our team and our organization is hurting deeply,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “It’s certainly something that puts everything into strong perspective, and challenges us all to never grow tired or weary or cease to do what is right, and loving others. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.

“We loved Yordano,” Moore said. “We loved his heart, we loved who he was as a teammate, a friend. He was somebody that challenged us all and made us better and I’m going to miss him.”

Highway patrol spokesman Jacobo Mateo said Ventura died on a stretch of highway 40 miles northwest of Santo Domingo, the nation’s capital. Mateo did not say whether Ventura was driving.

He’s the second young star pitcher to die in past four months. Marlins ace Jose Fernandez was 24 when he was killed along with two other men in a boating accident near Miami Beach in late September.

Also Sunday, former major league infielder Andy Marte died in a separate car accident in the Dominican Republic. Metropolitan traffic authorities said he died about 95 miles north of the capital.

“I was traveling to the airport this morning and I got a phone call wanting to know if I’d heard about Yordano, and I thought they meant Marte,” Moore said. “My first thought was, ‘Were they together?’

“Then shortly afterwards, I got a call from Major League Baseball confirming this tragedy.”

The Dominican Republic has the second-highest traffic-related death rate in the world — officials there believe alcohol, speed and a blatant disregard for traffic laws is to blame. Oscar Taveras, Jose Oliva, Rufino Linares and Jose Uribe are among players who have died in crashes in the country.

It wasn’t known whether Ventura had been drinking or speeding at the time of his accident.

Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez, a fellow Dominican whom Ventura called his hero, posted pictures of Ventura and Marte on Twitter and said, “Guys, the only way we can pay tribute to you, is by reflecting on the adjustments we all have to make in this game called life.”

Moore speaks frequently with Latin American players about dangers of returning home, including driving on the perilous roads.

“I’m more intentional about it to the point where it probably goes in one ear and out the other,” Moore said, “but we’re constantly discussing these things.”

The Royals lowered flags at Kauffman Stadium to half-staff Sunday, and displayed Ventura’s photograph on the large, crown-shaped scoreboard in centerfield of the empty ballpark. Fans were leaving flowers, hats and other mementos within hours of learning of his death.

Royals teammates learned the news in a text chain and took to Twitter to share their sorrow.

“I love you my brother. I’m in disbelief and don’t know what to say,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said.

Third baseman Mike Moustakas also expressed disbelief, tweeting: “I love you Ace. I don’t know what to say other than I’m going to miss you a lot. RIP ACE.”

Ventura will be buried Tuesday in the Dominican Republic. Moore, manager Ned Yost and other members of the Royals are planning to attend.

Before his start in Game 6 of the 2014 World Series, Ventura paid tribute to Taveras, his close friend and countryman who had been killed days earlier in a car accident in the Dominican Republic. Ventura wrote “RIP O.T #18” on his hat and also wrote messages on his glove, cleats and the mound before shutting out San Francisco for seven innings in a win.

“If he was still here, I would for sure be talking to him, and Oscar would be very happy for me,” Ventura said afterward. “Oscar was a very humble guy and very likable, and I’m going to miss him a lot.”

Ventura signed a $23 million, five-year deal with the Royals shortly before he started on opening day in 2015. He then helped them bounce back from their loss to the Giants in Game 7 by returning to the World Series and beating the New York Mets in five games for their first crown since 1985.

The right-hander went 11-12 with a 4.45 ERA last season, and his fiery demeanor was never more evident than when he hit Orioles star Manny Machado with a fastball to trigger a brawl. Ventura was suspended nine games for the pitch, though it was cut to eight on appeal.

In a surreal coincidence, the 33-year-old Marte played his final game in the big leagues for Arizona on Aug. 6, 2014. Ventura started that game for Kansas City.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic passing of Andy Marte and Yordano Ventura,” players’ union executive Tony Clark said. “It’s never easy to lose a member of our fraternity, and there are no words to describe the feeling of losing two young men in the prime of their lives. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families, friends, teammates and fans throughout the United States and Latin America.”

Moore said he spoke to Miami general manager Mike Hill early Sunday, in part because Moore admired the grace and heart in which the Marlins organization dealt with Fernandez’s death.

It wasn’t certain whether Fernandez was driving the boat when it crashed on Sept. 25. He had a blood-alcohol content level of 0.147, above Florida’s legal limit of 0.08, according to autopsy reports released by the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“That was one of the first things that came to mind when I began to figure out how we were going to process this,” Moore said. “Mike was able to provide some insight. Just give me some comfort, really.”

Ventura wound up pitching his entire career for the Royals, going 38-31 with a 3.89 ERA.

Born June 3, 1991, in Samana, Dominican Republic, Ventura was a true rags-to-riches story. He quit school at 14 and was laboring on a construction crew to support his family when he heard about a tryout, which led to a spot in the Royals’ academy located on his picturesque island home.

Still, the odds were long that Ventura would ever make it to the big leagues. Very few players from the Dominican academies reached the pinnacle of the sport.

But over time, Ventura was able to harness one of the most electric fastballs that scouts had seen in years, and his headstrong and confident nature was essential to his rapid rise. He made his debut to great fanfare in 2013, allowing just one run again Cleveland in a sign of things to come.

He eventually became a cornerstone of a youth movement that included young stars such as Hosmer and Moustakas, one that carried the Royals first to respectability, then to the top of the American League.

He was 14-10 with a 3.20 ERA in 2014, his first full season in the big leagues, and helped the Royals reach the World Series for the first time in nearly three decades. Then he helped to lead them back to the Fall Classic in 2015, this time completing the job on a crisp night in New York.

“He always had a zest for life, an innocence about the game, a freshness, a fearlessness,” Moore said, his voice cracking. “He was a very compassionate human being, loved to compete, no doubt challenged us, but that made us better. Nobody could ever doubt how much he cared about his teammates, how much he cared about the fans, and how much he loved to compete and to pitch.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Perhaps the Royals and Danny Duffy thought Kansas City sports fans could use some good news.

The team announced a $65 million, five-year contract with the popular left-hander on Monday, ensuring he will remain with the Royals through the 2021 season. Duffy was eligible for arbitration and could have become a free agent after the upcoming season.

Instead, he will earn $5 million this year before a bump to $14 million in 2018. He will make $15.25 million each in 2019 and 2020 and $15.5 million in the final year of the deal.

“Danny has been great. He has one of the best arms in all of baseball,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said earlier this offseason. “The fact that he’s left-handed makes him more special and separates him even more. He’s the kind of pitcher we all envision.”

Duffy and Moore are expected to attend a news conference Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium.

The contract was announced the day after the Chiefs, whose Arrowhead Stadium sits a few hundred yards from Kauffman Stadium in the same sports complex, lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs.

Good timing for fans who had been expecting a long postseason run.

Now, they can turn their attention to a season of big expectations for the Royals, who missed out on the playoffs last season after back-to-back World Series appearances. They return most of the major pieces from a team that contended until late in the season, and the move to keep Duffy as a cornerstone of their rotation should only embolden the franchise going forward.

The 27-year-old left-hander emerged from the bullpen to set career highs in wins, starts and innings pitched while going 12-3 last year. Kansas City was 17-9 in his 26 starts.

Duffy won 10 straight decisions from June 11 to August 21, one shy of the franchise record shared by Rich Gale and Paul Splittorf. He also set a franchise record with 16 strikeouts against Tampa Bay on Aug. 1, and he hasn’t lost at Kauffman Stadium in his last 15 starts.

Perhaps most importantly, his new contract takes one more star out of free-agency limbo.

All-Star first baseman Eric Hosmer, who agreed to a $12.25 million deal to avoid arbitration last week, can become a free agent next year. So can outfielder Lorenzo Cain, third baseman Mike Moustakas and shortstop Alcides Escobar — all former All-Stars — and veteran left-hander Jason Vargas.

“We’ll try to sign as many of our young guys as we can to long-term contracts. We won’t be able to sign them all, as you know,” Moore said. “That’s something we’ll have to figure out, and I’m accountable for figuring that out But I want to make it very clear, from the first day I took this job, we always tried to put the best team we could on the field each and every night.”

The decision to pay Duffy doesn’t come without a gamble.

He has been a roller-coaster as a starting pitcher much of his career, spending long stretches in the bullpen, and has never started more than 26 games in a season. He also underwent Tommy John surgery in 2012, though his movement and velocity are better now than they were prior to the injury.

Still, the deal represents another investment in the future by Moore, a signal that the general manager is not content simply to try to win next season and go through a wholesale rebuild.

In recent years, Moore has signed catcher Salvador Perez to a $52.5 million, six-year contract; outfielder Alex Gordon to a $72 million, four-year deal; right-hander Ian Kennedy to a $70 million, five-year deal; and young flamethrower Yordano Ventura to a $24 million, five-year deal.

Moore also traded All-Star closer Wade Davis to the Chicago Cubs earlier this offseason for young outfielder Jorge Soler, who is signed through the 2020 season.

The whole idea is to expand the Royals’ window to compete for another championship.

Evidently, Duffy wanted to remain a big part of it.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Royals were interested in Seattle right-hander Nathan Karns going back to the winter meetings, but the Mariners were reluctant to give up a power arm under club control through 2020.

That changed on Friday.

After the Mariners traded outfielder Seth Smith to the Baltimore Orioles for veteran right-hander Yovani Gallardo, the idea of shipping Karns away became a bit more palatable. So, the Royals and Mariners were able to reach a deal that sent him to Kansas City for outfielder Jarrod Dyson.

Kansas City got the starting rotation help is so desperately needed.

The Mariners got the speed they sought on the base paths.

“As so often times is the case, once teams know there is a mutual interest in a player — in their case Jarrod, in our case Nate — we just stayed in touch and the timing was right,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “The deal was obviously attractive for us.”

Kansas City has been trying to acquire help for the starting rotation, its biggest weakness most of last year. Stalwart right-hander Edinson Volquez departed in free agency and aging right-hander Chris Young struggled so mightily last season he was busted to the bullpen.

That could be the final destination for Karns, too. But the power right-hander will at least get a shot at the rotation, where the 29-year-old made 15 starts and finished 6-2 with a 5.15 ERA last season.

He missed the final two months with a back strain that landed him on the disabled list in late July, but Moore said Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto and the Royals’ own training staff believe he’s fully recovered.

“He’s been working out this offseason with no restrictions,” Moore said. “Our scouts have done their due diligence. We’re comfortable. We’ve been in touch with where he’s been doing part of his physical therapy down in Dallas, I believe, and we’re comfortable with where he is.”

Meanwhile, the addition of Dyson gives Seattle one of the quickest outfields in baseball.

Dipoto said he envisions Dyson in left field, Leonys Martin in center field and Mitch Haniger in right field, with Ben Gamel and Guillermo Heredia competing for playing time. But Dipoto was excited about the potential run protection and flexibility that Seattle’s outfield will have this season.

“We feel we now have five legitimate center fielders,” he said.

Dyson, a former 50th-round draft pick, became a fan-favorite in Kansas City thanks primarily to his speed on the bases. He hit .278 while stealing 30 bases a year ago.

“We’ve had many conversations about Dyson specifically,” Dipoto said, “and what a good fit he was for our team. He’s an elite-level defender. He’s dynamic on the bases, a fearless base stealer. And the combination of Jarrod Dyson, Leonys Martin and Jean Segura hitting somewhere between the bottom and top of your lineup really creates a three-player dynamic on the bases for us that is probably different than the Mariners have had in a long time and perhaps most different than most teams in our league.”

Dyson became more expendable following the trade of closer Wade Davis to the Chicago Cubs for young outfielder Jorge Soler. Davis and Dyson are eligible for free agency after the season along with outfielder Lorenzo Cain, first baseman Eric Hosmer, third baseman Mike Moustakas, shortstop Alcides Escobar and left-hander Danny Duffy.

“What we need to do is continue to add players we control beyond 2017,” Moore said. “Pitching, as we know, is so important. Power pitching is hard to get. Power pitchers you can control is very hard to acquire, as well.”

Dipoto said Dyson solidifies the Mariners’ lineup, though more moves could happen with pitching.

“We would still like to add,” he said. “We still have the capacity to be creative in looking to add. There will be some limitations there but we’re still open to finding ways to get better if possible.”

— Associated Press —

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Wade Davis already had closed out a World Series. And that was part of his appeal for the Cubs.

In a trade between the last two champions, the Cubs acquired the All-Star reliever from the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday for outfielder Jorge Soler. Davis immediately takes over the spot held by Aroldis Chapman, who became a free agent after the Cubs won their first title since 1908.

“Wade is going to pitch the ninth inning,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said.

Davis has done especially well in the postseason and helped the Royals win the 2015 crown. In 27 1/3 career postseason innings as a reliever, he has a 0.33 ERA with 39 strikeouts. The 31-year-old righty went 2-1 with 27 saves in 30 chances and a 1.87 ERA last season. He spent time on the disabled with a forearm injury and was limited to 43 1/3 innings, but returned to pitch in September.

Hoyer said Royals GM Dayton Moore allowed the Cubs’ trainer to examine Davis earlier in the day, and the medical report was fine.

“He looks fantastic,” Hoyer said.

Soler made his big league debut in 2014, and the Cuban is a career .258 hitter with 27 homers and 98 RBIs. He starred in the 2015 postseason when the Cubs reached the NL Championship Series, reaching base in his first nine playoff plate appearances and batting .474 with three homers and three doubles in seven games.

Soler went 2 for 13 in this year’s postseason, with both hits coming against Cleveland in the World Series.

Davis joins a bullpen that includes Hector Rondon, Pedro Strop, Carl Edwards Jr. and more. For a team that expects to play “that seventh month,” as Hoyer said, it helps to have extra arms.

Hoyer said the Cubs saw the physical toll it takes on pitchers to play until November. With Chicago well positioned to try to extend its run, Hoyer said, “we want to plan accordingly.”

Chapman was traded from the New York Yankees to the Cubs late in the season.

“Having Wade there from Day One then makes everybody else a little bit better,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “And also, when you win games, when you win a lot of games, win a lot of games in row, that’s where you have the tendency to beat somebody up. So by having this kind of depth, you don’t have to put the burden on one or two guys.”

“It’s going to mean you can spread it out a little bit more. So having Wade there at end permits us to use these other guys differently and the ability to spread out the workload,” he said.

The trade was announced at the winter meetings, where relievers have been a main focus. The San Francisco Giants gave closer Mark Melancon a $62 million, four-year deal while free agents Kenley Jansen and Chapman are still available.

“There’s several guys out there right now that everybody would like to have, and the guys that are out there as free agents are obvious. Guys like Wade Davis, ask around the industry, how many people would like to have him,” Maddon said.

Asked about Davis vs. the Cubs’ closer last October, “I can’t tell you he’s better. He’s just different,” Maddon said.

— Associated Press —

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Royals catcher Salvador Perez, one of the best defensive catchers in Major League Baseball, continues to be recognized for it.

Perez won his fourth straight American League Rawlings Gold Glove Award on Tuesday night.

Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer, who had won three straight Gold Gloves, was a finalist, but did not win. Alex Gordon, nominated for the sixth straight year, also did not win. Gordon has four Gold Gloves.

“Salvy is the best in our league,” Royals manager Ned Yost said late last season. “And he continues to improve.”

Perez threw out 37 potential basestealers this season, and led the AL with 11 Defensive Runs Saved, according to Baseball Info Solutions.

How did winning his fourth Gold Glove compare to the others?

“I think it’s better,” a smiling Perez said on ESPN.

Perez also said his greatest thrill is throwing out the fastest runners in baseball. He then was asked which speedy Royal he’d like to throw out, and Perez said, “[Jarrod] Dyson. If I played for another team, I’d like to throw him out.”

Gordon has 74 outfield assists since 2010, most by an outfielder in the Major Leagues. Gordon lost out to Brett Gardner of the Yankees.

Hosmer lost out to Mitch Moreland of Texas.

“Hoz is one of the best in the business at picking throws at first base,” Yost said. “That takes a tremendous amount of pressure off our other infielders.”

Major League managers and coaches, voting only within their league and unable to vote for players on their own teams, account for 75 percent of the selection process. The other 25 percent goes to the sabermetrics community.

— Royals.com —

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Right-hander Dillon Gee and outfielder Daniel Nava have become free agents after refusing outright assignments from the Kansas City Royals to Triple-A Omaha.

The 30-year-old Gee signed with the Royals in December after six seasons with the New York Mets and went 8-9 with a 4.68 ERA in 14 starts and 19 relief appearances. He is 48-46 with a 4.13 ERA in his big league career.

Nava, 33, signed with the Los Angeles Angels in December and was traded to the Royals in August. He hit .223 overall with one homer and 13 RBIs in 138 at-bats. Nava has also played for Boston and Tampa Bay during six seasons in the major leagues, compiling a .262 batting average with 25 homers and 185 RBIs.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (Oct. 12, 2016) – Kansas Speedway announced Wednesday that Kansas City Royals catcher, and member of the 2015 World Series championship team, Drew Butera will be the honorary pace car driver for the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday, Oct. 16.

Last year, Butera made his post-season debut in Game 4 of the American League Division Series, working a 10-pitch walk in the eighth inning to extend the inning as the Kansas City Royals overcame a four-run deficit in the inning. He also was behind the plate for the final inning of the World Series, replacing Salvador Perez who had been lifted for a pinch runner.

Butera was drafted in 2005 by the New York Mets and made his Major League Baseball debut in 2010 with the Minnesota Twins. He’s also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels. In addition to catching, Butera has made starts at first base, and also pitched in relief during his career.

He is the son of former Major Leaguer Sal Butera, who is currently a coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Tickets are currently on sale for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 on Oct. 16. The Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race will take center stage on Oct. 15, while the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards championship race will run on Oct. 14. Tickets can be purchased online at www.kansasspeedway.com or by calling 866.460.7223.

— Kansas Speedway Press Release —