Royals invite Swampscott’s Dwyer to camp

Swampscott’s Chris Dwyer is hopping on a plane for Arizona Saturday and it’s not just to escape the weather..Dwyer, who played Double A ball for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals last summer, will attend the Kansas City Royals spring training camp as a non-rostered invitee. The Royals are the pa rent club of the Naturals.”It’s definitely exciting,” Dwyer said. “Going to a Major League camp and being part of it.”Dwyer, a 6-3, 201-pound lefty, attended Salisbury Prep School after attending St. Mary’s High.School. He was drafted in the 36th round by the New York Yankees, but opted for Clemson and in 2009, he was the Royals fourth round of the First-Year Player Draft. He started the season last year with the Wilmington Blue Rocks (High A) of the Carolina League and was called up to the Double-A Naturals (Texas League) during the season.Prior to getting called up, Dwyer had thrown six scoreless innings for the Blue Rocks. Five days later, after a 20-hour ride from Delaware to Arkansas, he tossed five scoreless innings in his Double-A debut.Dwyer, who found out in January that he was going to spring training, had a 6-3 record with Wilmington and a 2.99 earned run average. He was 2-1 with the Naturals with a 3.06 ERA.Although he won’t know whether he’ll be playing Double-A or Triple A next season for some time, Dwyer will likely be in Kansas City on opening day because the Double A team will be playing the Triple A team prior to the Royals game.Dwyer said he has spent the last few months visiting with family and friends and working out as much as possible.”I’ve been hanging out, enjoying the off-season because once everything gets going, there isn’t any time to anything,” Dwyer said.Life in the Texas League means lots of long bus rides, the longest being a 14-hour hop to San Antonio, Dwyer said, adding that the games draw good crowds (6,000-7,000 fans).Dwyer said his family was able to see him play a couple of times last summer when he was in Wilmington, but it was much tougher for them to get to Arkansas. His sister, Lindsay, is now an investment banker in San Francisco and his sister Lexi works for Boston College. Both were excellent soccer players at Swampscott High and in college. Lindsay went to Williams and Lexi to Trinity.The Naturals are located in Springdale, Arkansas, and although he didn’t know quite what to expect, Dwyer said Arkansas is actually very nice and there’s a lot to do.