Royals’ Mike Matheny breaks down progress and shortfalls of his first season in charge
Mike Matheny’s first season at the helm on the field for the Kansas City Royals featured plenty of unforeseen conditions by virtue of playing a shortened season in the middle of a global pandemic.
Even with the unique circumstances, the club’s new skipper also went into his first season with distinctive on-field ambitions.
Matheny placed a premium on establishing a brand of baseball, a culture at the major-league level and making progress towards the ultimate goal of sustained winning he trumpeted 11 months ago during his introductory press conference.
While they fell short of winning, Matheny expressed confidence that the club took important steps.
The Royals finished the 60-game season 26-34 and in fourth place in the American League Central Division. Each of the top three teams in the division qualified for the expanded eight-team AL playoff field.
“The bottom line is we’ve got to figure out ways to win. Winning is our business,” Matheny said on Wednesday. “We didn’t do that nearly as much as we wanted to do.
“But with the process in place of watching these guys prepare and compete and just how they worked, I had no regrets about how they went about their business. … What we were really hoping for was to change their belief in themselves to being a team that can win.”
Matheny assessed the season as he spoke via video conference call with reporters on Wednesday morning from Kauffman Stadium, where the Royals are holding a camp for players who weren’t on the major-league roster.
“The record is what the record is,” Matheny said. “It’s interesting to see some of these teams that are still playing right now that weren’t too far ahead of us. You could go back at a number of games and say what about that one or this one.”
The Royals played a major league-most 44 games against teams that finished above .500.
Matheny also reasserted his belief that the team remains close to expectations, and that they finished the season trending in the right direction.
The Royals went 12-13 in their last 25 games, tied for the best record in the AL in the final 18 games (12-6), and they won five of their last seven.
They started to see their projected opening day lineup play together late in the season when All-Star catcher Salvador Perez returned from the injured list (blurred vision) and Jorge Soler made a brief return from an oblique injury. Shortstop Adalberto Mondesi snapped out of the offensive funk that plagued him early in the season.
Starting pitchers Brad Keller (shutout against Pittsburgh) and Brady Singer (near no-hitter against Cleveland) turned in some of their best outings in the season’s final weeks.
Matheny said his club “ran out of time” in the shortened season, but proclaimed the “components for winning baseball” were evident at season’s end. Specifically, he pointed to starting pitching, offensive production, a strong bullpen and having key players healthy.
“I believe what we have is a winning group, it’s just a matter of how do we continue to progress and grow,” Matheny said. “We have a number of young players who have never experienced winning at this level.”
That lack of experience is why Matheny kept steadfast to his attitude that they were “chasing” a playoff spot even when the chances were minimal in the season’s final week. He felt it was important for players to feel that atmosphere and pressure as much as possible since many have not been there before.
General manager Dayton Moore expressed similar sentiments earlier in the week in his season-ending conference call.
“I do believe that if we had another week of two weeks, things could’ve been a lot different as far as the postseason,” Moore said. “I believe that we would’ve continued to play well and we would’ve finished with a much stronger record.”
Matheny acknowledged shortfalls in his club’s offensive performance as well.
Too often the lineup was top heavy and opposing pitchers dominated the bottom third of the batting order. The No. 7-9 hitters registered a slash line of .215/.283/.340 this season.
Other times, they created scoring chances and failed to take advantage in crucial situations. With runners in scoring position, the Royals slashed .242/.325/.403 compared to the league average of .256/.345/.429.
“Obviously, we need to increase our on-base percentage overall, but in a park like Kauffman doubles are going to be just as effective,” Matheny said. “I truly believe, and we saw it happen we played it out this way, we’ve got to do the little things right. We’ve got to get guys over, get them in. Every time we did that, it’s amazing how that created opportunities for our club.”
While free-agent additions this offseason similar to the pickup of Maikel Franco last winter will be ideal, Matheny wouldn’t put the onus for offensive improvement solely on additions from outside the organization.
“Without question the additions of guys like Maikel Franco are needed, but we need the guys that we have to, one, be healthy, two, stay health, and then, three, continue to improve,” Matheny said.
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Royals’ Mike Matheny breaks down progress and shortfalls of his first season in charge."
