So Moore dealt for Odalis Perez, who wore out his welcome in Los Angeles, but provided some innings. Moore also saw left-hander Jorge De La Rosa as a great arm who needed an opportunity as a starter every fifth day rather than in middle relief, so he traded Tony Graffanino to Milwaukee for him.

Hudson was promoted and put into the rotation, Hochevar was signed, and Tyler Lumsden, another top pitching prospect, was added in a late-July deal for Mike MacDougal.

Moore also has dealt most of the rest of the one-time core of the Royals’ pitching future in Andrew Sisco, Runelvys Hernandez and Ambiorix Burgos — the latter for young starter Brian Bannister. But Greinke is in camp, apparently over his problems and intent upon making the team out of spring training, even though there is no longer is the need to rush him. And in Lumsden, Buckner and Hochevar, they have three top prospects to look for in the near future.

“We’ve done a tremendous job with developing position players,’’ Moore said. “Now we need to do it with pitchers.’’

The other big pitching off-season acquisition was a dice roll on Octavio Dotel. The early health prognosis is good, and the Royals feel they will benefit from his desire to be a closer — a role he wasn’t going to fill in New York, where he pitched only 10 innings in 14 games last year coming off surgery.

“We had 31 blown saves last year — most in the majors,’’ Moore said. “We needed an identity at the back end of our bullpen.’’

The other potentially huge camp question is third baseman Alex Gordon, widely regarded as the best prospect in the game. But the Royals are trying to avoid placing the Opening Day-starter label on him just yet, and instead will just see how things play out this spring. A positive development on that front is a budding relationship between the future franchise player and one from the past – Hall of Famer George Brett.

“Alex grew up in Nebraska, the Royals were his boyhood team,’’ Moore said.  “So he knows all about George Brett.’’

Moore knows the Royals aren’t going to contend over night. But the pervasive feeling around camp is that the 100-loss seasons are a thing of the past. Ownership has allowed a payroll increase from $50 million to the mid-to-upper $50s this season, additional revenue streams will be coming with renovations at Kauffman Stadium, and almost half the payroll will be cleared next winter, when the contracts of Mike Sweeney, Reggie Sanders and Elarton expire, and there will be options on Dotel and Perez.

In other words, there will be plenty of wiggle room for another free-agent signing that could irk other teams.

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