The Royals organizational shake-up continues. Shortly after wrapping up a 69-93 season, Kansas City announced that manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred will not return in 2023.
The news comes a few weeks after the Royals made a change atop the front office. Longtime president of baseball operations Dayton Moore was dismissed in late September, with general manager JJ Picollo tasked to lead baseball operations. Picollo’s first major decision leading the organization is to make a leadership change in the clubhouse, and the Royals will now turn their attention towards finding a new skipper.
Matheny’s dismissal closes the books on his three-year managerial tenure. Originally brought to the KC organization over the 2018-19 offseason as a special assistant, Matheny was almost immediately rumored as a likely successor to then-manager Ned Yost. When Yost stepped aside at the end of the 2019 season, the Royals indeed tabbed Matheny to return to the top of the dugout steps. The former big league catcher had spent six-plus years managing the Cardinals between 2012-18, and he obviously impressed the Royals front office during his season as a special assistant.
It wasn’t a particularly imposing roster, with Matheny taking over as the team was firmly in the midst of a rebuild. Kansas City had lost over 100 games in each of the preceding two years, so it wasn’t particularly surprising they stumbled to a 26-34 mark during the abbreviated 2020 campaign. The following offseason, the Royals added Carlos Santana, Andrew Benintendi and Mike Minor in an effort to be more competitive. They were, to some extent, finishing with a 74-88 record that came with their highest win percentage (45.7%) since 2017.
Still, the improvements weren’t enough to make the Royals full-fledged competitors. After a 15-7 showing in April, they finished .500 or below in every ensuing month. Kansas City was surprisingly quiet last winter. The Royals reunited with Zack Greinke on a $13MM contract and shipped out the underperforming Minor for reliever Amir Garrett. Otherwise, Kansas City was counting on internal improvements paired with the fruits of a burgeoning farm system to get back above .500 for the first time since winning the World Series in 2015.
The Royals carried a top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. on the Opening Day roster. Within a couple of months, MJ Melendez and Vinnie Pasquantino would join him. All three have gotten off to solid starts, with Witt and Pasquantino looking like above-average regulars from the outset. The team’s overall performance, though, went in the wrong direction. They won nine fewer games than they had in 2021, finishing with the fifth-worst record in the majors. Benintendi and longtime franchise cornerstone Whit Merrifield were traded away midseason.
More to come.
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