SURPRISE, Ariz. — The two former All-Star closers stood beside each other as a line of Royals practiced their fielding one recent morning. Greg Holland raised his left leg and pantomimed his delivery, drifting ever so slightly to his right as he landed, the way he did for six seasons in Kansas City. Trevor Rosenthal mimicked his own mechanics, replicating the movements that once produced triple-digit fastballs in St. Louis, the muscle memory he aimed to recapture this offseason.



In the dry heat of a desert spring, the two veterans were trying to look like themselves. Holland and Rosenthal had never shared a clubhouse before this spring. Their paths, though, feature plenty of parallels. Rosenthal, 29, grew up in the shadow of Kauffman Stadium. Holland, 34, once helped the ballpark overflow in October. Both rose to prominence as hard-throwing, homegrown relievers in the last decade. Both saw their free-agent bonanzas thwarted by Tommy John surgery. Both reported to Royals...