Royals Fire Manager Mike Matheny After Three Seasons

Kansas City hasn’t made the playoffs since winning the World Series in 2015.

Following Wednesday’s season finale, the Royals announced that manager Mike Matheny would not be returning for the 2023 season. Pitching Cal Eldred will also not come back next year.

The news comes after the team fired longtime president of baseball operations Dayton Moore last month.

Matheny took over as the Royals manager before the 2020 season. The team finished with a losing record in all three years with him at the helm, including a 65-97 record this season, which was the second worst in the American League.

Kansas City’s back-to-back trips to the World Series in 2014 and 2015—which culminated in a championship in the team’s second trip—represent the franchise’s only two postseason appearances since 1985. The team has not posted a winning record since its World Series title in 2015, losing 97 games or more three times in the past five years.

Matheny spent seven years as the manager of the Cardinals from 2012 to 2018, which resulted in four playoff appearances in his first four seasons.

The Royals pitching staff had the worst team ERA (4.72) in the American League, with the lowest strikeout rate (19.1%) and highest walk rate (9.4%).