PEORIA, Ariz. -- You may have noticed that first baseman/outfielder Ryan McBroom was listed at second base in the Royals’ lineup for Saturday afternoon’s road game against the Mariners at Peoria Stadium.

“It started quite an uproar on our text chain last night,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “The boys wanted to know if we made a mistake. They were just giving us grief like, ‘How is he going to turn a double play? Is he working on it? Hey, you guys need to clean it up.’ I said, ‘You guys need to relax.’ It was good fun.

“It was instant [reaction]. They were all over it.”

Matheny explained that he only intended for McBroom to get one at-bat on Saturday against Mariners left-handed starter Marco Gonzales, then step aside for second baseman Erick Mejia. And that is exactly what happened: McBroom drilled a double off Gonzales, and Mejia came in to pinch-run in the Royals’ 9-6 win.

“[It’s] so hard in Spring Training to get at-bats,” Matheny said, “so we had a chance to get him that at-bat against a lefty.”

McBroom even tried to dupe a reporter before the game: “I was drafted as a second baseman, you know … nah, just kidding.”

Woods injured
Rule 5 Draft pick Stephen Woods Jr. had a rough first inning on Saturday. Woods turned his left ankle while covering first base on a groundout, sandwiched between three walks. Two of the walks came after the ankle turn, and Woods was removed from the game having recorded just two outs.

The Royals confirmed Woods had a sprained ankle.

Holly still tough
Right-hander Greg Holland, trying to make it to Kansas City after signing a Minor League deal, continued his impressive start to Spring Training.

Holland retired all three hitters he faced, striking out two. He has faced nine hitters this spring and retired them all.

“A couple of the breaking balls I threw for strikes,” Holland said, “which normally, later in the season, I might have tried to expand the strike zone with. It’s harder for me to throw those for strikes and that’s obviously going to be important, so that’s something I was working on.”

Up next
Left-hander Danny Duffy, likely the Royals’ No. 2 starter, makes his spring debut on Sunday against the A's at Surprise Stadium at 1:05 p.m. CT. Also scheduled to pitch are Jorge López, Brady Singer (Kansas City’s No. 2 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline), Glenn Sparkman, Daniel Lynch (No. 3 prospect), Jackson Kowar (No. 4 prospect), Foster Griffin and Tyler Zuber (No. 28 prospect).