The latest on the Royals search for a new manager

Plus, J.J. Picollo discusses the budget for the 2023 season.

Ahhhh, yes…October. That time of the year when things go quiet at One Royal Way. Except for this year. There are jobs to fill!

Royals executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo was a guest on the Cody and Gold show on 610 Sports on Wednesday and offered a glimpse at where the Royals are currently in their managerial process.

Picollo confirmed they had yet to conduct any interviews, including with Pedro Grifol and Vance Wilson, their two in-house candidates. He said that at the start of the search, he had a number of interviews in mind that he’s like to conduct, but discarded the idea of having a set number because he doesn’t want to place limits on the search. Picollo continues to stress the Royals have an open mind in regard to their managerial search and they are willing to see where this process leads them.

It’s probably helpful to have some managerial search perspective. There are currently five openings with two of those operating with “interim” managers. The Toronto Blue Jays have John Schneider who led the club to a 46-28 record and a spot in the Wild Card round after a 46-42 start. In his annual end-of-the-season meeting with the media, Jays general manager Ross Atkins said it would be “very difficult” to find a better manager than Schneider.

The other interim manager is in Texas with Tony Beasley. Rangers general manager Chris Young said last week he would be interviewing Beasley on that Friday. Beasley is their only in-house candidate and to this point, the only confirmed interview. Young laid out a timetable that sounds familiar to the one Picollo is operating under so it seems as though the Rangers and Royals are on the same track.

Meanwhile, the two other clubs with true openings aren’t messing around.

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Astros bench coach Joe Espada will also interview for manager with White Sox today. Split doubleheader of sorts for hot manager candidate, who has Marlins interview today, too.

Joe Espada, if you will recall from my article on managerial candidates earlier in the week, is one of the hottest names circulating. It’s been that way for the last couple of seasons. I would surmise that the interviews are happening in Houston on the scheduled day off between games one and two of the Divisional Series.

Picollo acknowledged that he is aware other teams have started their interview process. He noted that the Royals had contacted potential candidates to inform them of interest as they’re approached by other clubs. While it may be a bit disheartening the Royals aren’t off the block just yet, it’s not surprising Espada is going early in the interview process. The Astros are expecting to make a deep October run, so you get time with a guy like Espada whenever you can. There will be more interviews for the White Sox and Marlins to conduct. The Rangers will probably want to meet with him. I certainly hope the Royals will.

While it may feel like the Royals are a bit behind in the process compared to other teams, they’re not that far behind. Yet.

Picollo said he hopes to have the manager in place by the time free agency starts. That will be five days after the conclusion of the World Series, so go ahead and circle your calendars. And don't forget, the search for a pitching coach won’t truly get underway until the new manager is in place.

As for the key traits Picollo is looking for in a manager, he reiterated what he said last week. It’s all about communication.

“I really believe that our search right now will lead us to somebody that is a good in-game strategist. So I’m not as concerned about that. Really, no matter what your strategies may be the ability to communicate and collaborate with our staff and our players is really what we’re looking for…It’s the communication piece, the connectivity, the collaboration. Somebody that our players will connect to is starting to take the lead so to speak in what we’re looking for.”

Not to pile on Mike Matheny, but it’s illuminating to read between the lines. Organizations tend to act like a pendulum when they hire leadership. The relaxed clubhouse from one boss turns into one with more intensity. The hard ass turns into a player’s manager. In this case, it would seem as though Picollo thought that communication was a big issue with Matheny, which was one of the criticisms from his time in St. Louis as well. Not that it really matters anymore. Just kind of interesting.

Communication and collaboration are going to be key. Keep that in mind when we start seeing names associated with the job.

Picollo also had an opportunity to address the budget for the 2023 season. If you’re hoping for an aggressive winter, slow your roll.

“The conversations I’ve had with John Sherman, who’s been very supportive to go ahead and do the job, we’ll discuss things. We’ll invest in this team at the right time. I think right now we’re young, we’re coming off a tough season. It may not be the right time to invest heavily into this team and that’s fine with us. We have to cross over some barriers before we really dive in and we didn’t cross those barriers this year, unfortunately and we expected to. We have to get to a point where we’re performing at a level where we feel good about doing and then we can go ahead and potentially invest in the free agent market.”

On one hand, this is a refreshing assessment of the team and where it is in regard to competitiveness in the AL Central. Picollo’s predecessor was infamous for saying vague and nebulous things like, “We expect to compete for our division.” That may have boosted ticket sales, but it also raised expectations. And it was hardly ever accurate.

Unfortunately, Picollo seems to be positioning the Royals’ lack of progress as a reason not to add much payroll for the 2023 season. If you revisit my post from earlier in the week, you’ll see that the Royals most definitely have room to add some players via trade or free agency. They should be aggressive in identifying players on the market who would help not only in the short-term but in three to four years. That kind of player will be expensive, but the Royals can afford to do it.

What they can’t afford is not to do it.

Payroll in the AL Central is weird. The White Sox had an Opening Day payroll of around $193 million according to Cot’s Contracts. The Tigers and Twins were around $135 million. The Royals as you know were at $95 million. Bringing up the rear and still playing were the Guardians at $68 million.

While spending money certainly helps, spending money wisely helps even more. It’s reasonable to expect management to do both.