KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Royals experienced all the pomp and circumstance afforded to a league champion during Opening Day ceremonies Monday, and the man who might have been able to stop it all was sitting in the opposing dugout.

Geovany Soto is on the Chicago White Sox now, as a backup catcher to Tyler Flowers, but he was on the Oakland Athletics last year and in position to stop the Royals' ride to the World Series before it even started.

Soto was Oakland's starting catcher in last year's one-game wild-card playoff game at Kansas City, a game that had to be seen to be believed. The daring Royals swiped base after base against the A's and made two frantic comebacks before advancing to the division series in a wild 9-8 victory.

The Royals stole seven total bases in the game and were caught stealing just once, on an odd play in the first inning when Eric Hosmer was tagged out technically trying to steal home. On that play, Soto injured his left thumb. He continued playing, but was replaced by Derek Norris in the third inning.

Only one of the Royals' stolen bases that night came against Soto, who was in the game primarily to handle the Kansas City running game. The Royals swiped six bases against Norris, including four in a three-run eighth inning that got Kansas City within striking distance.

Soto might have changed Oakland's fate in that eighth inning. Maybe it would have been the A's facing the San Francisco Giants in another Bay Area World Series.

It's an interesting thought, but one with which Soto refuses to torture himself.

"Yeah, you think about it a little bit," Soto admitted, while sitting in that same locker room the A's used last fall when they were stunned into silence. "Right now I'm really just concentrating on this year. Whatever is in the past is in the past, you know? Right now I'm just looking forward to 2015 and see how it goes."

Asked to play the "what if" game one more time, Soto wouldn't bite.

"Yeah, but it didn't happen like that; we lost and that was it," Soto said. "I can't say that was going to be us [in the World Series] if we won. I just want to concentrate on this year."

So far this year, things have gone more to plan for Soto. He entered spring training with the White Sox on a minor league contract and turned that into an Opening Day roster spot with an impressive camp.

He has no assurances on playing time but with his ability to deal with the running game, he is sure to get more than the handful of starts provided to rookie Adrian Nieto last year.

"It's definitely a little different so far," Flowers said, as he has switched from being Nieto's elder statesman to having an elder statesman of his own. "It's good. We have that open communication, helping each other out. ... It's definitely been good dialogue."

It might not be a surprise to see Soto behind the plate for one of the two remaining games against the Royals in the current series. And with Jeff Samardzija experiencing command issues, Soto might end up catching his former teammate more often.

"Experience goes a long way," manager Robin Ventura said of Soto. "Guys like throwing to Geo. He does a good job of getting guys through an inning and figuring out what hitters are thinking and what a guy can actually throw and get over and get through it.

"You get a guy who has that kind of experience, you feel pretty confident if Flo needs a day, or you're going to make a switch one way or another, pinch hit, that you've got a guy going in there that's going to get in sync with pitchers pretty quick."

In some ways, the sooner Soto gets in a game the better. He can not only get his tenure with the White Sox started, he can put his 2014 season behind him. He not only saw his season end early because of injury, it also started later than expected because of a knee injury in spring training, when he was a member of the Texas Rangers.

"Oh yeah, it feels really great, especially the way last year went," Soto said. "It feels really good to be healthy and able to help your team and hopefully we have a good year this year.

"I feel like I just needed to stay healthy [in spring training] and do what I needed to do. I hoped it would be enough to win a spot and I'm really grateful I'm here. It's a great team and I'm really looking forward to the season."