The Royals announced that they’ve hired former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny as a special advisor to the team’s player development staff St. Louis fired Matheny in July despite the fact that he was signed through the 2020 season.
“This is a great opportunity to have Mike become a member of our organization,” said Royals general manager Dayton Moore in a statement announcing the move. “It has always been our policy to hire the best baseball people we can and this is a perfect example of that. Mike has contributed so much to our game as both a player and a manager and has a wealth of knowledge that can only make us better. I’m excited about the possibilities of what he’ll bring to our organization.”
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch linked the Royals to Matheny back in August, and several reports since that time have suggested that he could end up with the Kansas City organization in an advisory capacity. He’ll now join Moore and have a bit of a hand in scouting and player development efforts.
While there’s no firm indication that Matheny will be considered for managerial openings in Kansas City down the line, Goold did note in the aforementioned report that Matheny would like to manage again, and it’s worth noting that current skipper Ned Yost is only signed through the 2019 season. Fancred’s Jon Heyman suggested last month that the 2019 season could be Yost’s final as a manager, and Yost himself has hinted at a similar timeline in the past.
Certainly, there’ll be speculation about the possibility of Matheny being groomed as a successor to Yost — as was the case with Brad Ausmus after he was hired by the Angels in a similar capacity last winter — though that’s hardly a foregone conclusion. The Reds, for instance, added John Farrell to their front office last offseason, and while he was indeed considered for their managerial vacancy, that post eventually went to David Bell.
He should do a fine job as long as he doesn’t have to actually talk to the young players. If he does…yikes.
Lol. Seems like the perfect fit for a rebuilding team.
Sarcasm?
Maybe Mathaney won’t have to be a “Yes Man” in Kansas City. Mozeliak pushed Low Hanging Fruit players on Mathaney. When those players didn’t work out, Mozeliak never accepts any blame for those players poor production. He always blame their poor play on Mathaney to the owners or anyone that would listen. Mozeliak is and will continue be the root of all of the Cardinals problems!!!!!!!
I’m not a fan of Mozeliak, but I wasn’t much a fan of Matheny’s, either. If the Royals are considering him for manager somewhere down the line, let’s hope they hire a bench coach who knows how to use pitchers a WHOLE lot better than does Matheny.
Agreed. Not a fan of either but Matheny was not held back by Mozeliak. He’s just an overall awful manager
Great manager. Poor performance out of players!
Great manager? In what way?
Doesn’t a great manager get high performance out of the players???? Not sure how he was a great manager.
Probably on his fantasy team.
That is correct, He is a horrible manager!
Too bad you don’t recall all those 4 years of playoffs. Some of you Cardinal fans have short memories. No fired Matheny then rebuilt the BP. You probably don’t remember injuries to Yadi, Paul, and Kolten that hurt tremendously. Sad.
Oh I remember them all right. 2012: Lost NLCS
2013: Lost World Series
2014: Lost NLCS
2015: Lost NLDS
2016: No Playoffs
2017: No Playoffs
Bochy totally out managed him in 2012, while MM lost to Boston by repeatedly pitching to Big Papi during the 2013 WS. In 2014 he plain beat himself with some of the most awful managing ever during the postseason.
I need to say. Mathaney doesn’t manage well at all. No consistent line ups and seemed like a man on a different planet when it came to his relievers. Actually ended some fine relief pitchers careers because of over use. My beef is John Mozeliak. As he lost Scott Rolen, Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, he replaced them with late in their prime stars like Carlos Beltran and Lance Bergman. After that, he hasn’t brought in or developed any star quality players since Bergman and Beltran left. He will make noise that he’s going after the top player available with Free agency or top quality players available in trades but has always settled for lesser players. His contracts to Fowler and Cecil has hampered the Cards since he made them. Mikalous is the best he’s done in a while. It’s to the point now, one star player isn’t going to make the difference this season. He’ll have to come up with 2 or more to make a run at the pennant.
Are you trying to misspell everyone’s names or is it just a natural gift of yours?
Natural Gift of mine.
Spell it like it sounds. Ha!
Rolen wanted to be traded because he hated Tony Larussa. Edmonds was traded to get David, we will see you tomorrow night, Freese. Albert Pujols was lost, thankfully- in hindsight, to free agency. Lance Berkman, signed as a free agent, was critical in that 2011 WS. Beltran gave us over 6 WAR and great leadership while on the club. Mozeliak tried to get David Price, and Stanton. The issues with those players is they didn’t want to come to St.Louis. This will also be the case with Harper and Machado, even if they were offered more to play in St. Louis. I understand the frustration with not making the playoffs as anyone. I also know that key people like Mozeliak are not as bad as we want to blame them for? Do you think the guy wakes up with a pinky to his lip, like Dr. Evil, and says “How can I destroy this team”? With the exception of not being a little more aggressive at the trade deadline, and maybe holding on to a manager a few weeks too long in 2018, they weren’t that far behind in their division and making the playoffs. I think the Cardinals are in a tough spot every year as the team that needs to contend as well as the team that needs to sustain that forever? They could take the more drastic roads like Milwaukee and the Cubs, but the fan base and the city itself would have a difficult time with that. Until St. Louis, which is becoming more and more a less desirable place,can clean itself up, I think the direction the Cardinals are taking is probably the best for the team, the city, and their future. You can thank Mozeliak for some of that.
The low hanging fruit comment Mozeliak made a few years ago is not something I believe I have heard again since? As for Mozeliak, in particular, being the root of all the Cardinals problems that might be a stretch. I think us Cardinals fans have had such a good history of winning that we have become a spoiled
That was made over 10 years ago that some morons in the fan base cannot let go of… Frankly there is a entitled section of Cards fan base that cling to a reality that is not real.. Very much like Trump supporters, they view irrational theories as facts. Like Girsch is Mo’s fall guy, or DeWitt is greedy or that Lunhow was really the genius GM behind the scenes before leaving for Astro’s… Never mind the fact Mo was Lunhow’s boss, and the Dan Kantrovitz was far superior at drafting and developing talent then Lunhow has been. Kantrovitz never had to tank to get top picks to do it either..
So Cards17 can STFU for once and just try and enjoy baseball in all its facets for once..
Know the best way for me ( and I am guessing many others) to enjoy baseball in all its facets is? Not having someone force in some political reference and just talk sports – absolutely no reason to throw in a jab at trump supporters – we get it you have a political opinion- now can we just talk baseball?
Shame on you for making this about Trump. Pathetic that you are so angry that you cannot talk baseball
Bravo Riffraff!
save the whales, trees, wetlands, but kill unborn babies
What’s Kantrovitz done and what has Luhnow done? Take your dumb sheeple azz home.
2018 with Mike Matheny 47-46
2018 with Mike Shildt 40-28
Say what you want about Mo but Matheny was a bad manager. Cardinals won in spite of Matheny, not because of him. Matheny was consistently out managed and continued to make the same dumb mistakes in the bullpen. He was hard to watch on the bench.
I think your “consistently out managed” statement hits the nail right on the head.
Especially when whoever he called on came in and usually issued a walk then a homer in.
You forgot to mention the adjustment of the roster after the Shildt hiring. Especially the bullpen.
Matheny had many rosters and never succeeded with any. The only one he did well with was following LaRussa.
This isn’t true. He never had the same roster LaRussa had. For one, Pujols never played for Matheny. As for Matheny never doing well, that isn’t true. He did quite well early on, but he digressed. At the end, it came out that pitchers were afraid to tell the team when they were hurt. How long had that gone on? Would the bullpen have needed to be overhauled if they still had a healthy Siegrist, Rosenthal and Bowman, to name just a few pitchers who started out great and flamed our under Matheny?
Just another delusional gas station fan that has grown high off the hog from the DeWitt era and is now strickened with Cardinals affluenza. Mo had to Matheny-proof the roster every year to ensure he didn’t bury talented youngsters in favor of crusty vets.
Hence signing Dexter Fowler through age 35 for twice as much money as he would have commanded a year earlier?
Yes he had to Matheny proof the roster every year
Matheny – Red ass like Matt Williams – to uptight for mgr position did decent as assistant so he should be ok p/u.
matheny was never an assistant
Those are three guys I thought might not get another shot at managing – Matheny, Ausmus, Farrell. Matheny’s a little too “old school,” Ausmus appeared in-over-his-head, and Farrell generally confused. I would avoid all three in today’s game. “Special Advisor” is about right.
Matheny’s got some “special” advice alright!
Lmmfao
Hey, everyone deserves a chance to work.
That’s about the best thing i can think to comment on this hiring.
Manager-in-waiting.
Sad
Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Royals are FU&&ED!
Sad day for Royals fans and organization. They should all hope that Matheny is not viewed as the manager in waiting. He should stick to coaching Little League to avoid the glaring fact that his seemingly intelligent playing career somehow did not translate to his managing career. Maybe the repeated concussions that he suffered were a factor, but sadly, but he could not seem to learn from his mistakes (like most managers do) or even recognize things that a casual fan on TV would notice instantly.
Good manager and very much under appreciated. Royals got a very good man. Congratulations!
Good luck to Mike just hope some where down the road someone tells him it’s the MAJOR LEAGUE not some A league ball ! I get his philosophy on being men and knowing how to behave which is all fine attribute to have BUT that doesn’t ( put a ring on the finger ) . What is intriguing is that MO hand picked him from a list that included the likes of Jim Leland ! As Tony Once said the game is won between the white lines not on a computer or what the odds say. As long as Mike keeps a tie on he’ll be just fine .
So the Chesterfield Little League had no openings?
Nope neither did Florissant nor Hazelwood.
Love the Cardinals and Royals. the last 2 teams too play Branch Rickey style fundamentals. (Tigers GM is trying to implement it…..we’ll see.)
Matheny’s managing caused me to tune out the Cardinals. Technically he was almost as bad as the current Phillies manager. He couldn’t bring along young players. And how far the team had gotten from Cardinals baseball was strikingly evident when Shildt took over the team, and suddenly they’re hitting behind the runner, stealing and taking extra bases, hitting the cutoff man, etc.
Ned Yost is not a great manager. At times the ’14-’17 team won in spite of him. Credit had to be given to the development and coaching staffs – especially Rusty Kuntz, Dave Eiland, and Dale Sveum.
I have high hopes and confidence in the current rebuild. Sometimes a manager has to be fired once or twice before he’s successful. But if Mike Metheny succeeds Yost, I have my doubts.
He was a nice defensive catcher in his day. Have him work with the young catchers. Send him to every minor league affiliate and give them a crash course on how to handle arms ranging from the young and green to the seasoned and experienced.
Hope he isn’t advising on the bullpen
Especially if they are untalented like the Cards bullpen.
He could have 5 Hofers in bullpen and he would fxxx it up
The quintessential Dayton Moore hire
▪Gritty “baseball” guy
▪strong character based around Christian values
I’m not trashing it…he likes character people.
As long as he is going to focus on the catchers of the organization, there won’t be a issue. He better not be the manager in waiting.
Great. He can advise an org. who not very long ago, had the greatest 7-9th inning relief staff in MLB, on how to destroy a reliever’s career in 2 years or less.
The Black Friday deal that nobody wanted!
I maintain Matheny was a bad manager, but he was better than Gabe Kapler. I like Matheny as a person, so I hope he has some good mentors in KC.
Maybe, just maybe, he will get a shot as a better manager (later, much later) and wind up like Tito or Hinch, who also were terrible in their first stints. Of course Tito had zero talent when he managed the Phillies… Hinch had some talent on the D-Backs.
I am not even a Cards fan and I saw a lot of bad moves by him over the years. I sincerely wish him the best though because, as a person, he seems like a good guy. I hope he learns.
Heck, if the Phillies announced Matheny as their manager tomorrow, it would be an upgrade.
A lot of negative comments.. that’s too bad guys can’t keep it in perspective that Mike Matheny IS A ST. LOUIS CARDINAL who won 4 gold gloves and was a stellar defensive catcher. You may disagree with his decisions and coaching style but he deserves congratulations and thanks.
Good luck, coach. Dont mind these haters.
Now an entire generation of Royals players can learn the fine arts of just kind of being there and surving entirely off nostalgia and name recognition….
Best of luck! As I Giants fan thank you for letting Lance Lynn bat with the bases loaded brilliant idea! Keep making good choices and you will go far!
I have no faith in GMDM anymore. Since 2016 he’s made poor signings/trades and near disastrous moves like trying to sign Luke Heimlich. Keeping Lonnie Goldberg in charge of scouting and bringing in a doofus like Matheny is indefensible. They have a weak farm system and somehow DM thinks trading for “MLB ready” garbage like Brett Phillips is getting us read to supposedly compete in 2021. DM needs to take an Executive position in the org and let someone like JJ Picollo take a shot at building a winner in the 21st century.