SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Calvin Pickering was declared the winner over Ken Harvey for a designated hitter/first base spot when the Royals whittled their roster to 25 players Tuesday.

Pickering, a hulking left-handed hitter, will open the season Monday at Detroit in the cleanup spot as the DH.

The Royals also announced that Emil Brown had won an outfield job over Abraham Nunez and Aaron Guiel and that right-hander Denny Bautista had bested left-hander Jimmy Gobble for a rotation spot.

Harvey, a 2004 All-Star Game selection, was optioned to Triple-A Omaha.

"It's a business decision, and I'm on the wrong end of the stick. I'll just suck it up and do what I can do," Harvey said. "Really, I'm at a loss for words."

Harvey hit just .238 and Pickering only .222. However, the Royals were impressed with Pickering's plate discipline.

"I will use Pickering against right-handed pitchers. The thing we have seen in Pickering is that he is a threat. He worked the count better than anybody, he puts his bat in position to hit, and he supplies power," Pena said.

"Harvey has been swinging at a lot of bad pitches, and his selection has been very bad. Harvey just needs to go back down and continue to find himself," he said.

Brown, a non-roster longshot, had a .409 average, four homers and 16 RBIs when he was summoned into manager Tony Pena's office to receive the good news.

"This is a guy who came out of nowhere," Pena said. "When we played him, we saw something."

Guiel was reassigned to the minor league camp, and Nunez was put on hold pending being placed on waivers.

Bautista had gradually taken hold of the No. 5 starting spot over Gobble, who was optioned to Omaha. Bautista, who had a 3.66 ERA to Gobble's 6.94, impressed Baird by consistently keeping his pitches low.

"I'm surprised," general manager Allard Baird said. "I can't sit here and tell you I thought Denny Bautista was going to make this club."

Bautista joins Jose Lima, Runelvys Hernandez, Zack Greinke and Brian Anderson in the rotation.

Right-hander Kyle Snyder was optioned to Omaha, where the one-time starter will continue to pitch in relief. The Royals believe bullpen work will be easier on Snyder's arm, repaired three times by surgery.

"I'm definitely happy with the way I pitched. I'm disappointed I'm not on the team," Snyder said. "That's this business. It's a numbers game, and that's how it goes."

That cleared the way for a bullpen cast of Mike Wood, Shawn Camp, Nate Field, Jaime Cerda, Mike MacDougal, Andrew Sisco and closer Jeremy Affeldt.

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Pena confirmed that Ruben Gotay will be the second baseman and rookie Mark Teahen will be the third baseman alongside shortstop Angel Berroa.

"Those two kids will make their mark. It's not like we gave Gotay the position. I think he earned that. He swung the bat well (.344) and played really good defense," Pena said.

"Teahen was supposed to go to Triple-A and we signed Chris Truby and he's on the disabled list. We could have gone out and tried somebody else, but I think this kid has been playing well in the field, he's been hitting OK (.375) and we decided to go with him."

Tony Graffanino, who came to camp as the projected second baseman, will be the reserve infielder. That means Denny Hocking and Joe McEwing will be reassigned.

The demotion of Harvey means team captain Mike Sweeney will play first base most of the time. He'll be backed up defensively by Eli Marrero, and Pickering will play there occasionally.

Marrero and Terrence Long will be platooned in left field. On the other side of center fielder David DeJesus, Matt Stairs will share time with Brown in right field.

The catching is set, with John Buck as the regular and Alberto Castillo as the backup.

Pitchers Chris George and Dennis Tankersley, like Nunez, are out of options and headed for the waiver wire unless they are traded.

Infielder Chris Clapinski, out for the season with an elbow injury, was reassigned to the minor league camp. Pitcher Scott Sullivan (back) and Truby (wrist) will be placed on the disabled list.

Pitcher Kevin Appier announced he'd retire if he didn't get a job offer in the next two days.

"I feel real good about this ballclub. This Spring Training we have played well. Just two games we have played very sloppy, but, other than that, I feel very comfortable with the way we've played. We have been able to eliminate mistakes," Pena said.

"When you're dealing with a lot of young players, we are going to make mistakes, but we're going to address those mistakes and make those kids better day-by-day."