Kansas City Royals: Mike Matheny can’t be replacement for Ned Yost
The Kansas City Royals made headlines on Friday when it was announced that they hired Mike Matheny as their special advisor for player development. Hopefully this is not the first step in having him becoming the next manager.
It will be a slow offseason for the Kansas City Royals, as they figure out what direction they want to go in with free agency this year. To kill some time, however, the Royals added Mike Matheny to their front office, hiring him as a special advisor for player development.
Matheny spent the previous seven seasons as the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, where he compiled a record of 591-474 during that time. Matheny had a winning record in every season, but failed to make the postseason in 2016, 2017, and were right at a .500 record when the Cardinals opted to part ways with him.
While the Royals currently have a different role in mind for the former Cardinals manager, Ned Yost is 64 years old and coming off a hip injury from an offseason ago. He’s returning in 2019, but it’s hard to picture him continuing to be the manager of this team down the road due to his age and that injury I just mentioned.
The #Royals announced that they've hired Mike Matheny as a special adviser for player development. Not a managing gig, but he'll be involved on both the scouting and development side.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) November 23, 2018
The fear around social media after the news of Mike Matheny joining the organization was announced, was mostly negative from the fans. Many were scared that he could be a potential replacement for Yost and that would not be ideal.
Yes, Matheny had winning records in every season, but for the Cardinals, a very winning program with a long history of making the postseason, missed it three times under Matheny. Their fans despised him so much that he was let go midseason (though I’m sure the firing had more to do than that).
Looked at the list of young Cardinals that improved after he was fired. Wondering why anyone would put him near any young player.
— Jon Von Achen (@jonvonachen) November 23, 2018
The Royals are among the teams that have reached out to former Cards manager Mike Matheny about an advisory/off-field role in the organization. Dayton Moore has long respected Matheny and he'd be a nearby resource. @JonHeyman and @dgoold mentioned this first.
— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) November 6, 2018
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While Ned Yost is obviously the manager for the time being, he can’t coach forever. With Matheny being 48 years old and reportedly having a strong relationship with Dayton Moore, bumping him up to manager after Yost calls it a career wouldn’t be shocking in the least bit.
As much as I dislike the Cardinals and enjoyed watching them “struggle” (I wish barely missing the playoffs was considered a struggling season for the Royals), Mike Matheny ruined that franchise. When St. Louis opted to fire him, it was a sign that they were enough of mediocrity from him and it’d be much of the same if he had that role in Kansas City.
Hopefully I’m just jumping to conclusions and Mike Matheny isn’t next in line to be the Royals manager, but it sure seems like it could go in that direction when Yost calls it quits.