The Royals have settled on their next skipper, announcing Sunday night they’ve tabbed Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro as manager. It’s reportedly a three-year contract that also contains a club option for the 2026 season. This is the first Major League managerial job for Quatraro, who turns 49 years old in November.
A popular managerial candidate in recent years, Quatraro has received interviews with at least six other teams (the Marlins, Mets, A’s, Pirates, Tigers, and Giants) looking for new skippers, and he was reportedly a finalist for at least three of those positions. Quatraro made it to the final stages of the hiring process with the Pirates, Mets, and most recently the Marlins before those teams went in other directions. However, Quatraro will now finally get a chance to run a big league dugout, taking over a Royals team looking to turn the corner after a rebuild.
Kansas City has gone through six straight losing seasons, the last two coming after the front office made some notable (by the Royals’ standards) free agent investments meant to help the club back into contention. After that effort didn’t pan out, longtime president of baseball operations Dayton Moore and manager Mike Matheny were both fired, marking a new era in Royals history. Since new GM J.J. Picollo is also a longtime member of the front office, the Royals aren’t turning the page entirely on their recent history, yet Quatraro brings a new voice to the proceedings.
Quatraro does have a past link to Royals owner John Sherman, who become a minority owner in Cleveland during Quatraro’s four-season tenure (2014-17) as the Indians’ assistant hitting coach. That stint in Cleveland was Quatraro’s only professional experience outside of the Rays organization, beginning when he was an eighth-round pick for Tampa Bay in the 1996 draft. After seven years as a player, Quatraro then moved into the coaching ranks, working throughout the Rays’ farm system as a coach, hitting coordinator, catching instructor, and manager. He has spent the last five seasons on Tampa’s MLB coaching staff, first working as a third base coach before moving into the bench coach role prior to the 2019 season.
The Rays will now need a replacement as Kevin Cash’s top lieutenant, though coaching searches have become a pretty common offseason occurrence in Tampa. Beyond just the normal turnover that often comes to coaching staffs on an annual basis, the Rays frequently lose personnel (whether in the coaching or front office ranks) to other teams looking to replicate Tampa Bay’s formula for winning on a low budget. It remains to be seen whether Quatraro can bring some so-called “Rays magic” to Kansas City, though of course, the Royals have the 2015 World Series title as evidence the organization knows a few things about smaller-market success.
According to several reports, Quatraro was one of seven known candidates involved in the Royals’ search. The club considered three internal candidates (bench coach Pedro Grifol, third base coach Vance Wilson, Triple-A manager Scott Thorman) and four candidates from outside the organization — Quatraro, Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, Red Sox bench coach Will Venable, and Phillies third base coach Dusty Wathan.
With the Royals’ opening now filled, it could increase the chances of Grifol heading elsewhere (perhaps even to his own managerial post since he interviewed with the White Sox). It would stand to reason that Quatraro might want to make some of his own picks for his new coaching staff, and the Royals already have a vacancy at pitching coach after announcing that Cal Eldred wouldn’t be returning in 2023.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Royals were hiring Quatraro as manager. Anne Rogers of MLB.com was first to report he signed a three-year deal with an additional option season.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
SFBay314
Good hire. Better than Gabriel
ASapsFables
This is an excellent hire by the Royals. Another good one might have been former White Sox and Cubs manager Rick Renteria who twice demonstrated an ability to develop young talent in a rebuild. Hopefully Matt Quatraro will have an opportunity to finish what he starts in Kansas City, a courtesy Renteria was not entrusted with in Chicago.
msqboxer
Never considered him…good point and he should have been seriously considered.
fre5hwind
Surprised Pirates tried to get him.
RyanD44
There’s no tres of success in that organization! May they forever cinco to the bottom of the division!
elmedius
I see what you did there…
Dumpster Divin Theo
Pretty fly*
*for a White guy
For Love of the Game
Uno, dos, tres, quattro, cinco, cinco, seis.
Johnny81913
Finally someone hires him. Tired of seeing him as a finalist for all these different positions
rct
Must have been rough for you.
Johnny81913
Finally someone hires him. Tired of seeing him as a finalist for all these positions
whosehighpitch
I agree. If he was such a hot candidate he should have been hired years ago regardless how long the Rays were playing. Still think the hire should have been and would have been Dusty Wathan if it was not for the contract extension the Phillies gave him
Buff Barnacles
We’re not even out of October – this is kind of a quick hire.
sox4ever
Why wait when you have your guy
LordD99
Where there a Will there’s a Quatraro.
Logistics Guy
Let see If I got this right you have Joe M and Joe G out there and this guy you hire. # Hello Last Place KC
GareBear
Both of which are overrated and not fits for where KC is at or what they are trying to do. Quatraro was a great hire coming from a KC fan
cwsOverhaul
Once upon a time, those guys were given a chance/their “big break” to prove themselves. Perhaps KC didn’t want the rearview mirror approach for its young club.
thunderroad19
I don’t remember reading about those two being linked to any of the several jobs available so far this offseason. I doubt that’s just a coincidence.
RoyalsFanAmongWolves
Joe Maddon is in his 70s we wanted a long-term manager not a guy who is approaching Normal retirement age for a regular job.
duhawk83
Maddon and Girardi want teams ready to win now. You need a guy to grow your team. Hey your in the AL central; keep your chin up. Anything is possible with the teams in that diviision.
cuffs2
Those 2 both want a team that is ready to win now. The Royals have the players. What they need is someone who can develop those players into a winning team. That takes time. Maddon does not have that. Girardi will not take that. This will be a 3-5 year job if done right. The previous regime won a title in 2015 by mortgaging the clubs future for guys that were gone in 2 years time. This time the New Owner wants to do things differently. The Royals have 4 winning seasons since the year 2000. In 2 of those years they made the World Series winning it once. Sherman has more money than the old owner and wants to be competitive every year not just 4 times in 23 seasons. Dayton Moore traded the teams future for guys that could help a good team win now. Catch is those guys did not have much of a shelf life.or were free agents a year later.
Tdat1979
Good choice, now get a good pitching coach.
kcroyalsman
kcroyalsman
kcroyalsman
stupid phone….
Maddox
kcroyalsman
maddox!
Holy Cow!
He might make a good outfield coach.
kcroyalsman
??
retire21
Gary
Captain Dunsel
You must mean Garry Maddox, the Secretary of Defense.
miltpappas
Good hire. Royals fans should be pleased
User 2079935927
Quatraro by Motorola
sufferforsnakes
Is this the guy from Total Recall?
ASapsFables
Ha-ha! I was looking for the MUTANT button but only see one for a MUTE.
jorge78
The Titanic has its new captain!
Rsox
The Royals have a really good young core of position players. If they can get the young pitching to be able to get Major League hitters out this team can be a playoff contender in the near future
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
High IQ posts today.
CKinSTL
With all the high-ceiling position prospects KC has, that could end up being a fun job..
#1WhiteSoxFan
I thought new managers should not be announced while World Series is still undecided.
At least the White Sox are waiting to announce Ozzie!
YankeesBleacherCreature
Ozzie doesn’t get announced. He puts the league on notice.
thunderroad19
I, too, thought there was some sort of unwritten but understood rule about announcing things like this during the World Series.
Maybe it just applies to trades or free agent signings though.
Prospectnvstr
They delay announcements until after the World Series unless it’s an off/travel day. They also wait to announce hirings of personnel of teams still in the playoffs.
cuffs2
They hired Pedro Grifol the Royals bench coach the next day after KC decided to hire someone else to manage the squad.
jimmertee
Who?
Edp007
The road to mlb manager goes thru Cash’s staff? Baldelli, Montoyo, Quatraro, missing anyone ?
Samuel
MLB FO’s today pretty much have been influenced by the innovations the Rays and Astros did in the 2000’s. Dodgers even stole Friedman from the Rays. Many FO heads worked for those organizations before getting their positions.
Now franchises are bringing in their coaches as managers.
The problem there is that in those 2 organizations what the FO does drives what the managers do – particularly with advanced analytics….and those 2 organizations seem to still be ahead of everybody except maybe the Dodgers. Hiring the manager(s) without having the advanced analytics in place doesn’t work. That’s putting the cart before the horse. Maybe the new Tigers PoBO can bring them up to speed to help Hinch. The Twins and Jays came from the pre-Cleveland FO that created their pitching factory. It appears the Giants have some of the technical part down, but they haven’t brought their data to a point where it works well other than finding players that are misused and making them successful – their farm system and name players don’t seem to produce very well.
Don’t know what will happen with the Royals. Their new FO head has been with that organization for 16 years – doubt he’s had much exposure to analytics. So Mr. Quatraro can offer some suggestions, but no one builds systems piecemeal from the inside out – they have to be designed in a global manner as there are so many interconnections that cannot be retrofitted later if the design didn’t allow for them.
ASapsFables
Well said.
That said, and as a long time baseball fanatic since the early 1960’s, I’m still not convinced that so much reliance on advanced analytics is actually what’s best for MLB.
YankeesBleacherCreature
I enjoy looking into analytics data as much as anyone who cares would but I dislike the fact that TV networks are increasingly force-feeding it into our live game feeds. I don’t want MLB Gameday CG overlays bc I want to enjoy watching a game without overthinking it. I can’t imagine any new fans learning the game understanding any of it.
thunderroad19
Unfortunately, the overexposure of analytics on the screen is likely intended for the benefit of bettors…something I can certainly live without.
stymeedone
@samuel
Yes, teams try to replicate the success of Tampa Bay. Not too many teams trying to collect picks by constantly finishing in last place intentionally, the Astro way.
mt in baltimore
Very true
cuffs2
The Royals are going through a complete rebuild of their organization from the top down. sherman the new owner bought a team that had some talent and appeared to be on the way up. Then this year they changed the ball and all their young hitting crashed back to Earth forcing them to deal all their established players except Salvador Perez. At that point Sherman decided to put his own stamp on the club. He fired the GM & the Manager. Now he is hiring guys to take the very young talent on the club and develop it. The old club was just as much into analytics. Problem is the old GM had a habit of being impatient and trading the future away for guys that could help you win now but couldn’t stay long. Moore discarded guys like Liam Hendriks as if they were trash, The number of quality guys they got rid of just before they hit big was criminal. All for rentals on guys like Josh Willingham. Sherman is redesigning the club through his hires right now. The owner is starting over with his guys.He may be a genius or an idiot but he will not do the same thing over and over again and expect different results this time.
Poster formerly known as . . .
Does he have a brother named Audi?
YankeesBleacherCreature
I only know of his other brother Schick.
nitnontu
No more “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” for Mr. Quatraro!
Edp007
When you’re set to lose a 100 games or so for the next few seasons you hire a cheap stop gap manager. When you get close to a playoff spot in a few years , or you’re a rich team ready to spend big now , the stop gap is let go .. And then an expensive name guy is hired. That’s just how it goes.
Hired Gun 23
Meh…
Habeto
Good for the Royals! Quatraro and Grifol were probably the most qualified from all those without managerial experience. I think it’ll be good for this young team.
SliderWithCheese
The quality of living in Kansas City just increased. It’s now around a 2.
Armaments216
In Kansas City I hear they refer to Quatraro as RoyaleWithCheese. Any relation, Slider?
30 Parks
Believe the Sox looked at this guy, too. Good luck to MQ.
ShootyBabbit
I remember his daughter, Suzie Quatro, being a thing in the ’70’s
LordD99
Quatraro might be a good hire, but if you’re a Royals fan, you have to hope that his hiring signals a change in the organization’s approach toward implementing more advanced analytics. (BTW I dislike that catch-all term, but I think we all knows what it implies.) Working for the Rays doesn’t mean the “Rays Way” shows up with the hire. He can provide insight, but he can’t implement it across the organization. That’s both a top-down and system-wide change. Maybe his hiring signals their intent to change and more changes are being made behind the scenes; ones that are not obvious to those on the outside.
Kevin Cash, in the eyes of the media and fans, can do no wrong, yet we don’t really know if he’s a good manager when divorced from the Rays Way. Joe Maddon, their first manager under that system, was the media darling. He could do no wrong. Now he’s been fired by the Angels, and on the way out he’s criticizing the game’s over reliance on analytics. Some of the shine is off the apple.
To succeed, the Royals need to mimic teams like Cleveland, the Rays, and even the A’s (they’ll be back). If not, they’ll remain something they’ve been for 30 years, which is one of the two or three worst run orgs in the game. Spare me talk of their World Series title. The game today allows for random one-offs. The sign of a smartly run team today is being competitive year in and year out. The Royals have as many world championships over the past decade as the Dodgers, but no one believes the Royals are well run. The Dodgers are at the top of the list for intelligently run orgs, the Royals at the bottom. The Royals can be one of those smart teams in their weak division. Is Quatraro a sign of a greater change? I’m doubtful until proven otherwise.
ratcitystar
Kind of sad that mlb’s current financial set-up dictates the following procedure, at best, for small market teams.
Draft
Develop your talent
Patiently watch them mature as the big club flounders
Bring them up, watch them contend and get older, and deserving of much higher contracts
Trade them, drop them
Repeat the process
Otis26
“The game today allows for random one-offs.” – There are 13 teams who haven’t won in over 30 years., and 17 who haven’t won in over 20 years. Over half of the league hasn’t won the WS since at least 2002. Stupid comment.
Old York
I’m excited for a Marlins-Royals tilt in October 2023. Going to be amazing!
Edp007
Lots of 1-0 games maybe
Buff Barnacles
It is refreshing to see this club hire someone not from within the organization.
RoyalsFanAmongWolves
Though I think Scott Thorman could have been a good choice. he’s been with the younger (most of them rookies the past two seasons) guys since they were in low a ball in Lexington, when Lexington was still a Royals affiliate.
Bob Lablah
Rays Coacing Tree:
Joe Maddon
Dave Martinez
Derek Shelton
Gabe Kapler
Charlie Montoyo
Rocco Baldelli
Matt Quatraro
Who else can we pick off from the Rays pipeline? The best manager of the group is Montoyo and he’s unemployed!
User 3595123227
That means everyone hates him. If he’s the best of that bunch why is he sitting home with no job?
User 3595123227
Just in case anyone doesn’t know the Royals are a small market club. It’s been mentioned 25 million times now but someone may have missed it.
BirdieMan
Who?
hyraxwithaflamethrower
Yet another good managerial candidate that the White Sox missed out on. Still can’t figure out why they’d pass on Espada. They’re going to end up with Grifol or, perhaps even worse, another insular hire and continue to be an underperforming joke. Only remaining hope is they convince Washington to come manage the team, but I doubt that happens.