Are Royals ready for win-now mentality?

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ned Yost’s retirement created a natural transition for the Kansas City Royals. With Yost setting off to enjoy time on his farm with his wife and their grandchildren, it meant without a doubt the players would have to respond to a different voice.

It also provided the opportunity to set a new tone for a club that’s endured back-to-back 100loss seasons amid talk of growing pains and players adjusting to the big leagues.

“I’m tired of hearing about the rebuild,” said left fielder Alex Gordon, the longest-tenured Royals player, after re-signing with the club in late January. “It’s kind of been like a two-year thing, and I feel like we’re better than that.”

Well, the Mike Matheny era as manager begins this week. Royals pitchers and catchers report Tuesday to Surprise, Ariz. They’ll hold their first spring training workout on Wednesday, and the first fullsquad workout will take place on Monday, Feb. 17.

Matheny’s first task as the new sheriff will be to take advantage of this new beginning to set a standard and an atmosphere that pushes past the thoughts of rebuilding and the future.

Matheny officially stepped into Yost’s shoes at the end of October, and he immediately embarked on a cross-country tour to introduce himself and interact face-to-face with the majority of 40-man roster players.

“[He’s] ready to win and I think that’s been a big key, expressing that to our players right now over the offseason,” Gordon said. “We’re not rebuilding. We’re ready to win now. Hopefully, we can get that mindset in spring training because I feel like that needs to be addressed.”

Shortly after making the comment, Gordon acknowledged that talk alone won’t translate from the clubhouse to the field, as he added, “That’s a lot of words just coming out of my mouth.”

All-Star infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield, who led the majors in hits the past two seasons, echoed Gordon’s sentiments.

“We’re very tired of hearing about what the future holds,” Merrifield told The Star at Royals FanFest in January. “We don’t care about what 2021 is going to look like or what 2022 is going to look like. We want to know about what 2020 is going to look like because 90% of the guys in the locker room have never really been on a good team, and we want to know what that’s like on a big-league level.

“We think we’re close. We’d like to be closer. But we think that we have got a group of guys that — if they all play to their potential and come out and sort of have breakout or really good year — we feel like we’re in a position to where we can compete.”

Projections and prognostications will almost universally have the Royals slated to finish behind the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians in the American League Central Division this season.

Many will likely make allusions to the seeds the Royals have planted that could sprout in the future. Merrifield’s patience for such discussion has pretty much run out, particularly after the Royals finished 42 games out of first place in the division last season and 33 games back the previous season.

“Tomorrow is not promised,” Merrifield said. “I hate always hearing people ‘Oh well, in a couple years then we’ll be back to playing good baseball.’ No. We want to win now. We’re tired of losing. We’re tired of it. We want to win now. That’s the mindset guys gotta have. We’re going to go out and play the cards that we have. Hopefully, it’s good enough.”

Matheny’s first season can serve as the turning of the page.

He played a behind the scenes role in the organization last year as a special assistant to the general manager. He kept a distance from the big club and took over the reins having simultaneously gained an in-depth familiarity of the organization’s inner workings and maintained bit of an outside perspective.

“I heard it early on about how these guys are just hungry,” Matheny said. “They want to be pushed, and I think they’re very grateful for how well Ned protected this group. He did a great job of protecting the group and the expectation that was put on them.

“But I think now they’re ready for another expectation. So, careful what you wish for. Let’s put it up there. Let’s go. Let’s just chase excellence.”