The Royals are believed to be looking internally for their next manager, but it probably won’t be bench coach Dale Sveum, reports Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. Instead, Sveum has expressed a desire to take on a “different role” within the organization, which Flanagan reports is being “worked out.”
Special advisor Mike Matheny still appears to be the favorite for the manager job in Kansas City, although Sveum would have been a logical target in his own right. He’s spent the past six seasons with the organization, including the last two as Ned Yost’s bench coach. He’d served as KC’s third base and hitting coach prior to becoming Yost’s right-hand man.
Sveum also has MLB managing experience on his resume. Somewhat ironically, Sveum’s first MLB managerial job came after a Yost departure. He took over in an interim capacity for the Brewers in 2008 after Yost was fired amidst a September swoon. Milwaukee righted the ship and made the postseason, where they were bounced in the NLDS. Sveum is probably more famous for his two years at the helm of the Cubs from 2012-13. Those teams combined for a woeful 127-197 record, although he hardly had much on-field talent with which to work, with Chicago in the early stages of the large-scale rebuild that paid off in the latter half of the decade.
Nevertheless, it appears Sveum will not return to the top step of the dugout in Kansas City. It isn’t clear from Flanagan’s report whether Sveum will stay on the coaching staff in 2020, although it does appear he’ll remain in the organization in some capacity.
In addition to Matheny, bullpen coach Vance Wilson and quality control coach Pedro Grifol have garnered consideration, with Wilson known to have already interviewed. While the internal candidates are the favorites, Flanagan notes that the organization hasn’t completely closed the door on external hires, either. The hiring process has been a slow one, perhaps related to the franchise’s ongoing sale, although GM Dayton Moore apparently has free reign to make a hire whenever he so desires.
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Really?
OK
Sign this petition to make sure Matheny isn’t manager.
chng.it/MsfsqCj4cJ
Sounds good. I will send a few tweets as well, sharing our mutual displeasure.
I hope he is
Shut up!!!!!!!
If the Royal’s want Matheny to be their manger he will. I doubt any petition would have any effect.
Correct. It’s like any petition to fire joe buck. No one likes him but he is still there.
Or like pretty much any petition ever.
Or like pretty much every petition ever
Heard Moore very fond of Ron Jeremy
Ha! I see what you did there.
I hope he stays as the Hitting coach because we have good hitting. We got whit, soler, mondesi, dozier, gordon (if we sign him back) and O’hearn. They all can hit and that’s have of our line-up right there. I think he did good job but when he was manager he didn’t do good with the Cubs. He was 127-199 something like that. I hope he doesn’t manage our team. Keep him at our hitting coach.
In his defense the Cubs were starting their rebuild at the time he was hired. His record reflects the talentless rosters those two years not his managing ability.
dave is the bench coach. terry bradshaw (not THAT terry bradshaw) is our hitting coach.
Just hire Matheny so the 90+ loss seasons can continue.
no way! we want to get to 65 wins, don’t we?
A “quality control coach”? I want to see the job description and salary of that position.
If Matheny gets hired add the number of years until they fire him to the 80-90 loss seasons. He is terrible
#VotePedro