SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The principal differences Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield sees in the 2019 version of the Royals may be in attitude and motivation.

“I think we have a lot of guys this year that are hungry to prove they belong at this level,” Merrifield said. “I’m not saying guys weren’t motivated last year, but it’s a different type of motivation. With [Ryan O'Hearn], [Hunter Dozier], [Adalberto Mondesi], [Brian Goodwin] and a lot of the pitchers -- they’re big league players, but they haven’t proven themselves at this level. They’re all going to be good big league players soon, but they just haven’t proven it yet.

“I think that’s a good dynamic to have. It’s making this team a little different, but fun.”

Last year’s team also featured some veteran players who likely knew their time with the Royals would be short-lived, such as Lucas Duda, Jon Jay and Justin Grimm. That feeling perhaps became amplified when the Royals got off to a slow start.

“There was an understanding almost that, especially with us getting off to a slow, it was, ‘OK, where are we going [to be traded]?’” Merrifield remembered. “That’s just baseball. It’s not a bad thing, but that’s just where we were.

“This year, we got a lot of guys who are going to be here a while, so there’s that different motivation.”

That could help the Royals, especially in a division that may not be dominated by the Tribe, at least not as much as in recent years.

“I would like to think so,” Merrifield said. “Us getting off to a good start is going to be really important. If we get off to a good start, we’ll get confident that we can be good.

“We got some talent. We can think we can compete. We have to stay healthy. Losing [Salvador Perez] is not ideal, but we got [Martín Maldonado]. We’re excited for the season.”

Aside from losing Perez, Merrifield notes that he and his teammates must reach their potential.

“For us to be successful, guys will have to play to their abilities,” Merrifield said. “We can’t afford for guys to have down years. When you get to the big leagues, you don’t have a lot of time to prove you belong. We got a couple of guys who may have [more time] than others, but for a lot of us, we have to get up here and prove we belong right now.”