KANSAS CITY -- New Royals manager Mike Matheny is inheriting a much different situation in Kansas City than he did in 2012 with St. Louis, where he was expected to contend immediately.

The Royals are about to start Year 3 of a rebuild that is still at least a season or two from launching them toward contender status.

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Matheny, though, said at Thursday’s introductory press conference that he won’t use having a young team as an excuse for not being competitive.

“You won’t hear me call it [a rebuild],” Matheny said. “I’m going to be managing people. I’ve got high expectations of what we’re going to do. All I see is an opportunity. I truly can’t wait to start talking about the psychology of today and how are we going to win today. Don’t tell me we can’t win, because we can. We’re going to keep pushing that throttle.

“Yes, there’s going to be days when we win. I think there’s going to be days when we learn. We’re going to keep learning. We’re going to keep growing. You’re going to see a team that’s passionate about continual improvement without really setting any eye on anything except we play this game to win.”

Matheny, after being hired as a special advisor to general manager Dayton Moore almost a year ago, spent much of his time last summer surveying the Minor League landscape and the next wave of Royals prospects, including pitchers Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch and many others. Matheny was impressed.

“[The key is to] not put too much pressure on them that they need to be the saviors,” Matheny said. “You know what they need to do. They need to keep getting better. They need to, once again, be fostered in an environment that can give them a chance to excel here. There are some things that you can only learn at the big league level.

“I trust Dayton and the front office to make sure that we’re making wise decisions. I’ll tell you, it’s hard not to be impressed with some of these guys and want to push that envelope, but we want to do the right thing.”

The key is to resist the urge to rush that talent to the Majors, Matheny said.

“It’s all part of the process,” he said. “It’s a conversation that happens at a lot of different levels. One, in the front office. What are the plans that we have here? What are some of the gaps that we have? What are the opportunities? Then, let’s look at the talent we have here in the organization. It’s always keeping in mind that we don’t want to hurt anybody. Not physically. We don’t want to hurt their growth. If they’re showing [ability] to help us out, how can we create an atmosphere where they can thrive?"

Despite the Royals’ back-to-back 100-plus-loss seasons, Matheny said he wasn’t afraid to take on this challenge.

“The one word that kept standing out to me was 'sustained,'” he said. “It wasn’t just, ‘Let’s get back and have success.’ It was, 'How do we create sustained success?' So you’ve got an incredible culture. You’ve got a drive and a commitment. You’ve got incredible players that are on the way with a very bright future. ... I truly see something very special about to happen here, and I want to be a part of it.”