Kansas City, Mo. ? Trey Hillman is one of the few big-league managers who never has coached or played in the majors.

Will that matter?

“It all depends on what you believe is major-league baseball,” the new skipper of the Kansas City Royals said Monday, somewhat defensively. “In my humble opinion, I’ve been a major-league manager for the last five years. We get after it in Japan.”

After being introduced Monday as the Royals’ 15th full-time manager, Hillman prepared to return to Japan to manage the Nippon Ham Fighters in defense of their Japan Series championship.

A veteran of 13 years managing in the New York Yankees minor-league system, the 44-year-old Hillman built the Fighters into one of the model franchises in the Japanese major leagues. He has managed in Japan for the past five years.

It’s not as though he’s a stranger to American baseball, though. After playing college ball for Texas-Arlington, Hillman spent several years as a second baseman in the Cleveland Indians system, getting as high as Triple-A.

Nevertheless, for a big-league manager never to have been a player or coach in the majors is highly unusual.

“On many levels and on any given day, the quality of play (in Japan), I believe, is as good as it is here in the United States at the major-league level,” Hillman said.

His inexperience in the major leagues, he said, is not something he views as an issue.

“I have no anxiety about that because the game of baseball is the same all over the world.

“There’s different styles and different ways of playing it,” he said. “Really, what matters is the foundational relationships that you can build with your players and putting them in the best possible position to be successful.”

The Royals, despite signs of improving, finished last in the AL Central for the fourth year in a row and have not been in the postseason since winning the 1985 World Series.

“I really couldn’t be any happier today,” Hillman said. “I’m a hungry guy. I do not like to lose.

“I like to start from the ground up and build in such a way where it’s going to be maintained for many years to come. I’m a long-haul guy, too. I’m a loyal guy. I’m bleeding Royal blue already. I’m thrilled to be here. It’s a wonderful day in my life.”