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Ken Rosenthal: The Athletic
Kansas City Royals
Mike Matheny is held in high regard by the club’s decision-makers, but the most prominent of those decision-makers, Moore, is now out of a job. Additional changes are likely, and few would be surprised if those changes include Matheny, even though the Royals in March exercised the manager’s club option for 2023.
In three seasons under Matheny, the Royals have gone 26-34, 74-88 and, with six games to play, 63-93. Some with the team have wondered if Matheny’s relentless intensity is too much for a young club. New chairman and CEO John Sherman has spoken of the need for “more data-driven decisions,” and that desire likely extends to the manager’s office.
Sherman’s choice of general manager J.J. Picollo to replace Moore would seem to suggest the new owner values stability. Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol would be a leading candidate to replace Matheny, if the team again wanted to stay in-house. Sherman, though, clearly wants the team to think as progressively as the Al Central champion Guardians, for whom he previously was a minority investor. Someone like Quatraro, who was Cleveland’s hitting coach from 2014 to 2016 before joining the Rays as third base and then bench coach, would appear a logical fit.
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