On Thursday, the Kansas City Royals announced they hired Mike Matheny as their new manager. Matheny previously took the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series six years ago.
The 49-year-old Matheny went 591-474 with the Cardinals from 2012-18 and was the first manager to reach the postseason his first four seasons. The Cardinals reached the World Series in 2013 but lost to the Boston Red Sox. Matheny was fired in July 2018 as the team was headed toward a third straight season out of the playoffs.
Matheny was hired last November by the Royals as a special adviser for player development and was predicted to replace Royals manager Ned Yost, who announced his retirement last month. The Royals are coming off another 100-loss season and in the midst of a massive rebuilding effort after their back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014-15. They have a wave of young position players and a promising batch of pitching prospects.
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