With one week until Opening Day, the Royals are beginning to make final decisions on what their roster will look like when they head to Kansas City on April 1. Most of the names are locked in, but the last roster spots are still up for grabs.

And one name has shot to the top of that list.

• Box score

Top outfield prospect Kyle Isbel has started in right field in the past two games for the Royals, including Thursday’s 10-1 win over the D-backs at Surprise Stadium. The club’s No. 5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, Isbel singled and went from second to home on an infield hit, part of his .933 OPS this spring. The 24-year-old has earned the trust of Kansas City’s coaching staff with his fielding, and his name has stayed in the conversation for a big league roster spot.

"He's another guy who is in the mix,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We're trying to get as many looks as we can before we make our final decision."

• Predicting the Royals' Opening Day roster

Typically, Spring Training lineups aren’t worth overthinking because of how teams try to maximize at-bats and attempt different combinations. But as Cactus League games wind down, lineups start to come together the way they might look on Opening Day. Here’s what the Royals’ lineup looked like on Thursday:

1. Whit Merrifield, 2B
2. Andrew Benintendi, LF
3. Adalberto Mondesi, SS
4. Salvador Perez, C
5. Carlos Santana, 1B
6. Jorge Soler, DH
7. Hunter Dozier, 3B
8. Michael A. Taylor, CF
9. Kyle Isbel, RF

That looks like an Opening Day lineup. Though the Royals often spoke this offseason about Merrifield playing right field, the trend lately has been to put him at second base so that he might be able to take over if the position falters offensively. Nicky Lopez, who had been pegged as the second baseman, has a .378 OPS in 39 plate appearances this spring, which could make Merrifield the club’s best option in the infield as Lopez makes adjustments.

If Hunter Dozier stays at third base -- where he has played the majority of Spring Training games -- instead of moving to right field, that opens a starting spot for Isbel or Jarrod Dyson, who the Royals signed to be their fourth outfielder early in camp.

“We got Dyson for a reason,” Matheny said. “He can be a guy that brings us a couple things, that’s why his value is so big to us. Play him anywhere in the outfield. Elite runner. A guy who has won. So he fills a lot of the things that we knew going in that we’d like to have from our bench.”

Isbel was one of four prospects reassigned to Minor League camp last week, but that’s not the same as being optioned, like outfielders Nick Heath and Edward Olivares -- both on the 40-man roster -- were earlier in Spring Training. The Royals could still select the contract of Isbel and put him on the 40-man roster to open the season. Kansas City has 38 players on its 40-man roster, so there will have to be some juggling if more non-roster invitees are added.

The Royals will likely start the season with 13 position players and 13 pitchers on their 26-man roster. And over the next week, that 13th position player spot will be a battle between candidates like Isbel, first basemen Ryan McBroom and Ryan O’Hearn and perhaps even outfielder Bubba Starling, another non-roster invitee who boasts elite defense.

Duffy feels fine after comebacker
A hard comebacker somehow managed to hit Royals starter Danny Duffy in both of his upper legs on Thursday, causing him to exit with one out in the fifth inning. But he walked off fine and said he was OK afterward; Matheny thought it was best to end the outing as a precaution.

“Yeah, it somehow hit both my legs,” Duffy said. “Can’t explain it, but I’m good. Skip came out, and I told him I was good, but he said, ‘Really good effort today, let’s just call it right there.’ I’ll have one more here, stretch it to six next time.”

Duffy allowed one run on four hits Thursday, striking out three with no walks. The left-hander will stay behind in Arizona after Cactus League games end to get one more outing before his first regular-season start, scheduled for April 5 vs. the Indians.

“I feel like I controlled my effort pretty good,” Duffy said. “Stepped on the gas when I had to. I finally got a changeup that I executed to a lefty. That’s a victory for me. I think my fastball was good, slider was good, curveball was a little bit loopy, but I’m trying to control the effort. It’s getting close to getting out of here, and I want to keep trending upward.”

Around the horn
• Ervin Santana, auditioning for a spot in the Royals' bullpen as a long reliever or a spot starter, if needed, had lights-out stuff in three perfect innings on Thursday, with seven strikeouts.

“That was pretty dominant,” Matheny said. “Thought he’s thrown well all spring, but the velocity was there as well, carried it for three innings. Thought it was great.”

• The ball was flying in Surprise on Thursday, with four Royals smoking home runs. Mondesi and Soler went deep in the first inning, followed by Santana in the fifth and McBroom to dead center field in the seventh.

• The Royals' bats were hot in Thursday’s Minor League game against the Dodgers, too, which featured a home run from Bobby Witt Jr., a double from Dyson, a double from Erick Pena, an RBI double from Nick Pratto and a three-run homer from Heath in their 9-2 win.

Quotable
“I’d take it, without question. I’m not going to try to influence [the team] one way or another; I know there’s a lot of different stances on the topic. But I’m more than happy to take it because I think it’s just going to help with this thing passing by, in my opinion.” -- Matheny on whether he’ll get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available