Royals fire Mike Matheny after yet another losing season
The rebuilding Kansas City Royals are going for a full reset.
The club announced Wednesday it had fired manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Aldred, just a few weeks after firing president of baseball operations Dayton Moore.
Kansas City Royals Executive Vice President and General Manager J.J. Picollo announced that manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred will not return for the 2023 season.
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) October 6, 2022
The decision ends a three-season tenure for Matheny in Kansas City that saw few highlights, but that wasn't entirely Matheny's fault. Eldred had been pitching coach for the Royals since 2017.
The Royals become the fourth MLB team to fire their manager this season, joining the Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays. The Chicago White Sox will also be hiring a new manager after the retirement of Tony La Russa.
Mike Matheny's Royals took a step back in 2022
Hired before the 2020 season, Matheny brought seven seasons of managerial experience to the table after a previous tenure with the St. Louis Cardinals. All seven of those seasons saw the Cardinals post winning records, with four playoff appearances.
Matheny's Royals tenure would be far less successful. The team posted a 165-218 record under Matheny, with no winning seasons.
To be fair to Matheny, no one expected, or should have expected, his team to become competitive right off the bat. He joined the franchise midway through a total rebuild under Moore, so Matheny's job was more to maintain the clubhouse culture and nurture the club's younger players.
This season was supposed to be when the Royals started putting things together, though. After going 74-88 in 2021, the club welcomed some significant prospects to the big league club, most notably top prospect Bobby Witt Jr., but ultimately posted an even worse record of 65-97.
The writing was on the wall after the Royals fired the much-more ingrained Moore, who had been running the front office since 2006, but the team had Matheny finish out the season. There likely won't be a full overhaul in Kansas City as the team replaced Moore with Moore's top lieutenant J.J. Picollo, but the current brain trust apparently wanted to see a change in the clubhouse.
Despite all those struggles with the Royals, the 52-year-old Matheny still has a winning career managerial record at 756-692.
