Josh Rojas

Yikes. McKenzie entered the game to start the fourth inning and walked Austin Slater to start things off. After getting Josh Rojas on a fly ball, he walked Brandon Drury and Omar Narvaez to load the bases before Lenyn Sosa walloped a two-run double on which Narvaez was cut down at the plate attempting to score. McKenzie was then lifted but returned in the fifth inning where he walked Michael A. Taylor and Dominic Fletcher before mercifully exiting. His velocity was up again -- with his fastball averaging 94.5 mph -- but he threw only 17 of his 39 pitches for strikes while generating five swings and misses (CSW of 23 percent). McKenzie has about as wide of a range of outcomes as any pitcher in the league heading into 2025.

The 27-year-old hurler punched out a pair of batters on the afternoon and didn't issue a base on balls. The damage done against him came in the second inning as Josh Rojas smacked a leadoff double and scored on a two-out single off the bat of Lenyn Sosa. Hit two strikeout victims in the ballgame were Andrew Benintendi and Austin Slater. Bubic got four whiffs on 27 pitches on the day -- two of those on his changeup -- while registering a strong CSW of 37 percent. Bubic looks like the early favorite to secure the fifth and final spot in the Royals' Opening Day rotation.

Ramos has a chance of making the White Sox as their starting third baseman, pushing Josh Rojas to second, but it seems like a long shot. Ideally, though, he'll take a nice step forward after hitting .242/.320/.387 in 88 games in the minors and .202/.252/.333 in 32 games in the majors last season.