Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
This Royals team bears little surface-level resemblance to the 2015 World Series Royals. They still have Salvador Pérez, of course, and Danny Duffy and Jarrod Dyson, and Wade Davis and Greg Holland are a bullpen one-two punch of “Remember Some Guys?” Other than that quintet, however, the roster has turned over entirely. Manager Ned Yost is more than a year into retirement. This is a different squad: These are not your old championship Royals.