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Royals Extend GM J.J. Picollo, Exercise 2026 Option On Manager Matt Quatraro

By Steve Adams | February 17, 2025 at 11:29am CDT

The Royals have signed general manager J.J. Picollo to an extension that runs through the 2030 season and contains a 2031 club option, per a team announcement. They’ve also exercised their 2026 club option on manager Matt Quatraro, reports Anne Rogers of MLB.com.

Picollo, 54, has been with the Royals for nearly two decades, originally joining the club as an assistant general manager and director of player development. He’d spent the prior seven years in the Braves’ scouting and player development departments.

Kansas City promoted Picollo to general manager in 2021, but he was still the team’s No. 2 baseball operations executive under then-president of baseball operations Dayton Moore. When the Royals moved on from Moore following the 2022 campaign, Picollo was elevated to the top of the department. The Royals have quickly returned to contention in the American League Central under his watch.

The Royals have been more active in free agency under Picollo than they’d been in prior seasons, and while the overall results have been mixed, most of the less-successful moves under Picollo have been small-scale pickups. Signings like Garrett Hampson, Adam Frazier, Chris Stratton and Ryan Yarbrough didn’t pay dividends. The two-year, $13MM investment in Hunter Renfroe is the most regrettable of those smaller-scale additions. He’s still under contract in 2025 and looking for a rebound after a dismal 2024 campaign. However, the club’s largest investments have been successful. Signings of Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo have been roaring successes.

Picollo’s signing of Aroldis Chapman on a one-year, $3.75MM deal proved most impactful of all, as Chapman was flipped to the Royals in the summer of 2023 — a deal that helped propel Texas to the World Series but also netted the Royals current ace Cole Ragans. That move might be the most impactful rental swap for any team in recent memory. Last summer’s acquisition of Lucas Erceg looks like a major win for the organization’s long-term outlook as well.

Under Picollo’s watch, the Royals have also extended shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. on an 11-year, $288.7MM contract — though the structure of that deal makes it quite likely that Witt will either opt out well before its endpoint or re-sign on another extension at some point closer to that opt-out opportunity.

An extension through the 2030 season gives Picollo the runway to even more firmly place his stamp on the organization. Obviously, while he didn’t have final say over many of the moves in the late 2010s and earlier 2020s, his fingerprints are still on many of those decisions. As the remainder of the current decade plays out, he’ll more firmly claim ownership of the state of the Royals’ roster. He’s already out to a good start, coming off an 86-76 showing that sent Kansas City to an ALDS showdown with the Yankees. They came up short in that effort, but that still marked the team’s first postseason appearance since the 2015 campaign in which K.C. won the World Series under Moore and former skipper Ned Yost.

Quatraro, 51, is entering his third season as the Royals’ skipper. The former Rays bench coach signed a three-year deal in Kansas City in the 2022-23 offseason. The 2023 Royals lost 106 games but improved by a staggering 30 wins in 2024, thanks to breakout performances from Ragans and Witt as well as big years from free agent adds like Wacha and Lugo.

The Royals didn’t have to make a decision on Quatraro’s future just yet, but today’s pair of announcements speaks volumes about Sherman’s satisfaction with the top baseball decision-makers he’s put in place. Picollo tells Rogers that he and Quatraro have forged a “great relationship” and that while he’s excited his skipper will be around for at least one additional year, he also anticipates Quatraro’s stay in Kansas City “being longer than that.”

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Kansas City Royals Newsstand J.J. Picollo Matt Quatraro

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View Comments (10)
Post a Comment

10 Comments

  1. dad

    8 months ago

    Good Move, The Royals have a chance to takeover Baseball in the Midwest with the Cardinals sinking into the bottom of barrel with Mo giving up and throwing in the towel.

    1
    Reply
    • 17dizzy

      8 months ago

      Fantastic! It’s great to see individuals being rewarded for jobs well done!!

      Well done by using their baseball savy in their heads to acquire quality players and prospects to make the American League Championship Series.

      The Dodgers are using Billions of dollars to try and Buy World Series Championships dominance.
      (This Sounds horrible, but what they are doing is obviously currently legal!!!)

      The Royals are using the old fashioned Baseball Brain Savy.
      Plus—- rewarding those players for over achievement. In hopes of winning another World Series.

      Therefore, avid Baseball Fans around the county, have the Underdog their looking for a possible World Series Championship ——-
      “The Old Fashioned Way!!!”

      1
      Reply
  2. Reynaldo's

    8 months ago

    Give all the money to Jr. That god awful lineup alone should cost JJ Picollo to lose his job. How do you justify trotting out MJ Melendenz and Hunter Renfroe out every day to hit 5 and 6?

    Reply
  3. LaBellaVita

    8 months ago

    And there you have it, folks. Within the first two comments, the spectrum of possible evaluations of this move has been established.

    7
    Reply
  4. Troy Percival's iPad

    8 months ago

    JJ can out-hit his Outfield. Why

    1
    Reply
  5. jqks

    8 months ago

    The author forgot the two year $15M deal JJ gave to Jordan Lyles. That one was much worse than the Renfore deal.

    3
    Reply
    • jqks

      8 months ago

      He was paid for both. He only pitched five innings the second year before being released.

      Reply
  6. Stan "The Boy" Taylor

    8 months ago

    If the Royals would have traded Merrifield, Duffy, Soler after his 48 hr season, and some others they would have a lot more pieces to work with. Even if the deals aren’t blockbusters, two cheap 2 WAR outfielders would be a big help for a small market team. Hold on to Salvy of course.

    2
    Reply
  7. Troutahni

    8 months ago

    What about rebound from a dismal 2023 with the Angels? He’ll be released after the first month. He looks done to me. Everything is hit into the ground, except if a pitch is grooved for him.

    Reply
  8. Samuel

    8 months ago

    The Royals FO and Manager/Coaches did one of the best jobs in
    MLB last season, and you kids are complaining and running them down.

    I don’t think 5% of the posters on here understand anything about how to play the sport of baseball and how MLB works.

    Reply

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