SURPRISE, Ariz. -- As soon as Royals manager Mike Matheny got the all clear to begin contacting his players when the lockout was lifted on Thursday, he hardly could set his phone down.

“Minutes after things were finalized, we were instantly on the phone,” Matheny said. “I had texts ready, just blitzing guys with stuff.”

A few days later, Matheny was in his office greeting players as they reported to camp. Late Sunday morning, he was throwing batting practice to players like Hunter Dozier, Ryan O’Hearn, Nick Pratto, Kyle Isbel and Bobby Witt Jr.

“You can tell, they’re so excited,” Matheny said. “You had that uncertainty hanging out all the time, like I think this is going to work out well, but stranger things in our world have happened. Whenever you have a little bit of something that you love threatened, you realize how much you love it. There’s a bit of that as well. … I think they’re missing the community more than anything.”

The Royals are now beginning the daunting task of mapping out workloads for pitchers and position players with less than a month to go until Opening Day. The first official workout for all 61 players on Kansas City’s spring roster is Monday, Cactus League games begin on Friday and the season opener is on April 7 at Kauffman Stadium.

“We feel pretty good,” Matheny said on Sunday. “But we’re still going to be really careful. That’s kind of the overarching theme, and we still need to see these guys. They tell us where they are, but we need to still see it to make sure the pictures and words match up. Then we can put together a better plan. … We’re more at the mercy of where they’ve been and what it looks like. So we’re going to be careful these first couple days, just to make sure everybody’s got their legs underneath them.”

After the initial welcome back and reunion-type texts and calls on Thursday, Royals players received questionnaires about what their workouts have been the last few months without communication with club officials. Several players had been ramping up in anticipation of a condensed spring, so they let the team know how far along they are and how they feel.

“Give us your last month breakdown -- we tried to schedule out ahead [before the lockout], but things happen,” Matheny said. “Tell us exactly what did occur. Then started to put together a program.”

The Royals invited 21 non-roster players to big league camp, and all but one (outfielder JaCoby Jones) has been in Minor League camp for the past several weeks. The Royals will be able to lean on their workloads once spring games begin, especially as the club learns more about how they’re 40-man roster players are feeling.

Beyond just the on-field ramp up and strategizing in time for Opening Day, Matheny’s working on catching up with his players after months of silence -- and looking toward this season and how the Royals can improve from last year. Kansas City finished 74-88 and in fourth place in the American League Central, another underperforming year but promising in terms of the pitching talent they were able to get into the Major Leagues.

This season should be no different with the hitting talent, including Witt, Pratto and MJ Melendez.

“There was a clear game plan for everybody as we left,” Matheny said. “We had some exit meetings, and then we had some meetings followed up with analytics. Here’s proof, this is how the baseball world evaluates you. … How do we improve? You start taking those gaps -- could be on the physical side, could be on the preparation side, could be on the process side, could be on the game planning side. A lot of it is physical improvements. Here’s something you’ve done well in the Minor Leagues, maybe not so much at the Major League level. How do we fill that gap?”

The Royals have a pretty set idea on who will be on their Opening Day roster, although there are some role competitions around the horn and on the pitching staff to sort out. But things will change based on how players show up and how they respond in the first couple of days. If one is behind when he comes into camp, that creates an opportunity for someone else.

And things could change, perhaps more during this spring than any other before. Free agency and trades are happening at a fast pace as camp opens, and while the Royals aren’t expected to make major changes, there are players they could add that would change the look of the team.

“Things change. We’re going to see some radical stuff happen in this game like never before seen during Spring Training,” Matheny said. “Right in the middle of it, we can end up having -- who knows what. Everybody’s always trying to make moves that they think can help improve. We’re in that same boat. So things happen. There could be opportunities that we don’t see right now. Get yourself ready and be prepared in case that presents itself.”