Kansas City Royals: Offseason primer, everything you need to know

John Sherman’s first move as owner will be to hire a new manager.

Current Royals owner David Glass surprised everyone when news broke at the end of August that he was looking to sell the team and already had a person (or persons) in mind. That guy was Kansas City native and a minority owner for the Cleveland Indians, John Sherman. The time period the sale being announced and the news that Sherman would become the new owner of the team in November happened rather quickly, which makes me believe that a lot went on behind the scenes.

Glass, 84, has owned the team since 2000 and been the CEO since 1993. The reports of his declining health came to light and provided some clarity on why the sale happened so quickly. Sherman is expected to have full ownership of the team in November.

As if just owning a baseball team wasn’t stressful enough, Sherman’s first move will be to hire a new manager after Ned Yost announced last week that he would be retiring at the end of the season. Yost came back to the Royals on a one-year deal last offseason and stated that he was waiting to retire until he felt that the “worst was over” in terms of the rebuild.

A lot came from Yost’s retirement press conference, much being on his time here and what is planned for the immediate future. But he also said that he hopes that the next manager comes from within the organization. While it’s certainly understandable for Royals fans to collectively groan in unison, a couple of candidates have been discussed in Mike Matheny and Pedro Grifol.

Sherman should definitely do his due diligence outside of the organization but if he and Dayton Moore feel that someone from within is the perfect fit going forward, then at least fans can rest easy knowing some thought was given to the process.