Kansas City Royals hire George Brett as hitting coach

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly no longer occupies the hottest seat in baseball. That distinction now falls upon Kansas City Royals Manager Ned Yost.

The Royals did not fire Yost on Thursday. But they did hire George Brett as hitting coach, which would be akin to the Dodgers hiring Sandy Koufax as pitching coach. The franchise icon has all the leverage; the manager probably is the next man overboard if the team does not play better.

In this critical season for the Royals, things could not be going much worse. The Royals, desperately trying to reach the playoffs for the first time since 1985, went all in this season. They acquired pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis from the Tampa Bay Rays and pitcher Ervin Santana from the Angels, betting that improved starting pitching and a core of blossoming young hitters would be the ticket to October.

Instead, the Royals fell into last place in the American League Central on Wednesday. They have lost 19 of their last 23 games.

The pitching has been fine; the Royals rank fifth in the league with a 3.82 earned-run average. However, the Royals have scored fewer runs than all but two teams in the league. They rank last in the league with 28 home runs; the Baltimore Orioles lead the league with 75.

Four of the Royals’ players rank among the bottom 16 in the league in OPS: outfielder Jeff Francoeur (.561), third baseman Mike Moustakas (.571), shortstop Alcides Escobar (.612) and first baseman Eric Hosmer (.654). Hosmer, who played first base for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, has one home run in 172 at-bats.

The Royals announced Thursday they had fired hitting coach Jack Maloof and replaced him on an interim basis with Brett, the greatest hitter the team has ever known and the third baseman on the last Kansas City team to make the playoffs.

Brett, 60, grew up in El Segundo.

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