Former St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny joined the Kansas City Royals as special adviser for player development on Friday.

"This is a great opportunity to have Mike become a member of our organization," Dayton Moore, the Royals' senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager, said in a statement. "It has always been our policy to hire the best baseball people we can and this is the perfect example of that. Mike has contributed so much to our game as both a player and a manager and has a wealth of knowledge that can only make us better. I'm excited about the possibilities of what he'll bring to our organization."