Kansas City Royals: How will they recover from tragedy?

The front office signed free-agent righthander Jason Hammel to replace Yordano Ventura, who died last month in a car accident at age 25. The bigger question, perhaps, is how the players will respond to Ventura’s absence from their day-to-day baseball lives. The Royals already were dealing with different uncertainty—the potential free agencies of first baseman Eric Hosmer, third baseman Mike Moustakas, shortstop Alcides Escobar and centerfielder Lorenzo Cain. Now they have a much more serious situation they must overcome.