KC Royals: Mike Matheny is ready to get back to baseball

The KC Royals manager has had an interesting first season with the team, but now, he is ready to get back into the swing of things.

The MLB and the KC Royals are finally getting ready to start the 2020 season. It’s likely to be a very odd display of baseball, and there could be some hurdles left to jump as the season continues to progress, but at the moment, things look to be moving in the right direction.

It has been a while since fans have gotten to see their teams in action, and some may have forgotten with everything else going on that the Royals are under new management this year. While there were many who were initially not impressed by the hiring of Mike Matheny by Kansas City, by the time the first spring training came around, it seemed as though most were willing to give him a chance.

Things were looking good for him up to spring training, but then baseball was shut down and the Matheny lost the chance to show what he could do during his first year with the Royals.

The lack of time in spring training was a let down for many, who still held concerns about whether Matheny had changed his ways from when he was the manager in St. Louis. Matheny had said the right things leading up to the initial start of the season, and now he is ready to get back to work.

Jeffrey Flanagan at MLB.com recently got some information from Matheny concerning the upcoming season. Matheny shared that he was excited to finally have a start time for the season and that he had talked with the players about the upcoming season and using everything to their advantage.

According to Matheny, the plans are for the Royals to be ready fast. Once they are cleared to go from their testing, batting practices will start and the team can start to decide on the 60 players that will be ready, and the 30 who will be in the actual lineup to start the season.

"“Sixty is a pretty big number,” Matheny said. “We had more than that going into the first Spring Training. We’re going to go with guys on that 60 who can help us in 2020. And we want to save room for some prospects — you guys who were with us in Spring Training know how much I liked having those prospects around.”"

It’s nice to see Matheny mention the prospects as well. There are some, such as Brady Singer, who many feel could benefit from this shortened season in the majors and are ready to compete. It seems that Matheny may be on the same page, while his comment reinforces the fact that he is looking more towards young players and not away, as some have suggested in the past.

As far as the players go, things seem to have continued moving in the right direction while baseball was on hold.

"“The overall feel from the guys was very positive. They sent us videos to see what ways they could improve and really try to utilize this time. I couldn’t have been any more proud. I think our guys are going to show up ready to go. We’re going to have live batting practices, and we’ll have multiple ups-and-downs for the pitchers.“I believe we’re going to be much further ahead than we would have been for a normal Spring Training.”"

In what is likely to be an incredibly odd season, the Royals look to be ready to face it head on. Matheny is ready to go and will likely get things moving quickly in spring training 2.0, wanting to figure out who is ready, and who still needs some time.

While the Royals have struggled for the past few seasons, in a short 60 game stretch anything is bound to happened and Matheny might just help the Royals tip the scales in their favor and find some success in 2020.

Mike Matheny and the Royals are ready to get to work and get back to baseball. It should be an interesting season with lots of twists and turns as games progress.