Kansas City Royals

Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Rios left the team's April 13 game against the Minnesota Twins after getting hit in the hand by a pitch from Twins reliever J.R. Graham. He was diagnosed with a fracture in his hand and could be out from three to six weeks. The Royals placed him on the disabled list on April 14.

Continue for updates.

The Kansas City Royals locked up one of their most promising young arms Saturday. According to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (via SportsCenter), Yordano Ventura agreed to a five-year, $23 million extension with the team. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports provided more detail:

Second baseman Omar Infante was a key figure in the Kansas City Royals' surprising run to the World Series last year, but the veteran middle infielder is ailing leading up to the start of the 2015 regular season.

Continue for updates.

The bullpen was arguably the biggest driving force behind the Kansas City Royals' Cinderella run to the World Series last season. Because of that, the defending American League champions have locked up Kelvin Herrera.

Continue for updates.

The Kansas City Royals made a big splash in 2012 when they traded away top-rated prospect Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery and Patrick Leonard to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for James Shields and Wade Davis.

After managing the Kansas City Royals to their first American League pennant in nearly three decades, Ned Yost has been rewarded with a one-year contract extension.    

The team announced the news on Twitter:

The San Francisco Giants may have won the 2014 World Series, but the season belonged to the American League Champion Kansas City Royals.

General manager Dayton Moore’s vision of building a winning organization based on strong scouting and player development finally was validated, as the Royals introduced a collection of homegrown talents to a national audience last October.

The Kansas City Royals are coming off of their most successful season in almost 30 years. Now, with an American League Championship in hand, the team faces a new set of challenges. Possibly the largest challenge of all is sustainability.

After a short league-championship round, this year's World Series is a matchup between the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals.

That might as well read Madison Bumgarner vs. James Shields, as no two players are more vital to their  teams' success than the two projected to start Game 1 of the Fall Classic.

Kansas City Royals pitcher Greg Holland earned a save in each of his team's four games during the American League Championship Series against the Baltimore Orioles to join Dennis Eckersley as the only pitchers with four saves in a single LCS, per MLB Stat of the Day.