As the Kansas City Royals go through a youth movement this year, their roster features 29 players who have not yet accumulated enough major league service time to be eligible for salary arbitration. That means contract negotiations for all of those players can carry on into spring training -- even as they're participating in team workouts.
The Royals made some headway in getting contract details for those players worked out on Monday, though, announcing that they have agreed to terms on 2018 major league contracts with pitchers Heath Fillmyer, Brian Flynn, Sam Gaviglio, Jesse Hahn, Tim Hill, Jakob Junis, Brad Keller, Andres Machado, Kevin McCarthy, Burch Smith, Eric Stout and Kyle Zimmer; catcher Meibrys Viloria and infielders Samir Dueñez, Hunter Dozier and Whit Merrifield. Terms of the contracts were not disclosed.
Of the players signed on Monday, seven of them – Dozier, Flynn, Junis, Machado, McCarthy, Merrifield and Smith – have Major League service time.
The Royals have 11 players who have not agreed to contracts for 2018: pitchers Miguel Almonte, Trevor Oaks and Eric Skoglund; catcher Cam Gallagher; infielders Cheslor Cuthbert, Raúl Mondesi and Ramón Torres and outfielders Jorge Bonifacio, Billy Burns, Paulo Orlando and Bubba Starling.
