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Matt Quatraro

Royals Hire Matt Quatraro As Manager

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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.

Marlins Down To Four Managerial Finalists

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11:30am: Heyman tweets that the Marlins have narrowed the group down to four and expect to make a decision soon. Heyman tweets that the Marlins have narrowed the group down to four and expect to make a decision soon. Raul Ibanez was interviewed early in the process but is not among the four, Heyman adds.

Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports that former Mets skipper Luis Rojas, who’s currently the Yankees’ third base coach, also secured a second interview, suggesting that he’s the fourth (and apparently last) finalist in the mix for the job.

9:37am: The Marlins are continuing to narrow the field in their search for manager Don Mattingly’s successor and have deemed a handful of names to be finalists in their search. Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro and Astros bench coach Joe Espada are among a “small field” of finalists in Miami. Jon Heyman of the New York Post adds Cardinals bench coach Skip Schumaker to the list of finalists.

Both Quatraro and Espada were considered finalists in last offseason’s Mets managerial search, before the team ultimately hired a more experienced option in the form of veteran Buck Showalter. The Marlins, it seems, are taking a different approach; the entire group of known candidates to have interviewed in Miami would be first-time managers at the big league level. Quatraro and Espada have both interviewed with at least five teams for managerial vacancies in recent years.

Schumaker, meanwhile, is a fast-rising name in the coaching ranks himself. The former big league utilityman was playing in the Majors as recently as 2015 and landed his first Major League coaching gig when the Padres named him first base coach in the 2017-18 offseason. San Diego eventually elevated him to the unusual title of “associate manager,” before the Cardinals, for whom he played eight Major League seasons, tabbed him as their new bench coach a year ago. Along the way, Schumaker has also interviewed for managerial vacancies with the Mets and Red Sox.

Other names known to have interviewed thus far include Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol and Phillies third base coach Dusty Wathan. Braves bench coach Walt Weiss reportedly declined an opportunity to interview, though the fact that there was even interest suggests that the Marlins aren’t dead-set on hiring a rookie skipper. Weiss spent four seasons as the Rockies’ manager from 2013-16.

Royals Interview Matt Quatraro About Managerial Vacancy

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Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro is again a popular interview candidate for managerial jobs, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link) reports that the Royals spoke with Quatraro earlier this week as K.C. looks for Mike Matheny’s replacement in the dugout.

Quatraro has previously interviewed with the Pirates, Giants, Tigers, Mets, Athletics about their managerial openings within the last three years, and he was reportedly a finalist for the jobs in Pittsburgh (before Derek Shelton was hired) and New York (prior to Buck Showalter’s hiring).  Quatraro is also pretty deep in the running for another job this offseason, as both he and Astros bench coach Joe Espada are being interviewed for a second time by the Marlins.

Just a few weeks away from his 49th birthday, a big league managerial post would be quite the early present for Quatraro, and the culmination of an 18-year coaching career.  After seven seasons as a player in the Rays farm system, Quatraro moved onto various roles as a hitting coach, hitting coordinator, and minor league manager for the Rays until he was hired by the Indians prior to the 2014 season.  Quatraro worked as Cleveland’s assistant hitting coach for four seasons, and this job could be a link to his chances with the Royals — as Rosenthal notes, Royals owner John Sherman was a minority owner in Cleveland during Quatraro’s tenure on the coaching staff.

Quatraro then made a return to Tampa Bay as a third base coach in 2018, and he has spent the last four seasons as Kevin Cash’s bench coach.  The Rays’ constant success on a minimal budget has led to several members of the coaching staff and front office being poached by other teams over the years, so Quatraro could be the latest name to join a lengthy list.

It’s a new era in Kansas City, as longtime front office head Dayton Moore was fired after 16 seasons with the team, and Matheny was let go after three seasons as manager.  Hiring Quatraro or another voice from outside the organization would help add some new perspective to the Royals’ operations, as new GM J.J. Picollo is a longtime member of the K.C. front office.  The only other known candidate for the Royals job is an internal candidate in bench coach Pedro Grifol, who was also interviewed by the Marlins and has also reportedly received interest from the White Sox.

Marlins Managerial Rumors: Espada, Quatraro, Weiss

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TODAY: Braves bench coach Walt Weiss turned down an interview request from the Marlins, according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post.  Weiss posted a 283-365 record as the Rockies’ manager from 2013-16, and he just completed his fourth season as Atlanta’s bench coach.  A 14-year Major League veteran best known for his time with the great Athletics teams of the late 80’s and early 90’s, Weiss spent a season with the Marlins in 1993, playing on the team’s inaugural roster.

OCTOBER 20: Astros bench coach Joe Espada and Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro have landed a second interview for the vacant Marlins managerial post, according to Craig Mish of SportsGrid. It was reported last week that Espada was interviewing for the position for the first time, but it’s the first reporting of the Marlins interest in Quatraro. Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol is the other known interviewee, although it’s unclear if he was asked back for a second time. Mish notes that a number of additional interviews have not been reported, so while there may well be a number of other candidates in play, the fact that Espada and Quatraro are interviewing a second time indicates they are starting to narrow down their search.

Both Espada and Quatraro have long been viewed as managers-in-waiting, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times suggests Quatraro could also be in the mix for the vacant Royals, White Sox and Rangers jobs. Espada, meanwhile, has already interviewed for the White Sox position.

It’s not the first season that Espada, 47, has drawn managerial interest. The Puerto Rico native has been a respected member of the Astros coaching staff since 2017, and has had interest from the Mets, Cubs, A’s, Twins and Giants in recent years.

Similarly, Quatraro, 48, is heading into yet another off-season where his name is heavily linked with managerial posts. The A’s, Giants and Pirates were linked with Quatraro in recent years, while it was reported he was a finalist for the Mets position last year before they opted for Buck Showalter.

Mets Begin Second Round Of Managerial Interviews With Three Finalists

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Dec. 14: The Mets will begin the second round of interviews today, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post.

Dec. 12, 4:17pm: Matt Quatraro joins Showalter and Espada as finalists, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).

3:55pm: The Mets’ managerial search has moved on to the next stage, with Buck Showalter and Joe Espada making up the field of known final candidates, as per Ken Davidoff and Joel Sherman of The New York Post.  It isn’t known if a third candidate could also still be in the mix, or if Showalter and Espada are the only two who will now interview with Mets owner Steve Cohen.

There was no surprise over Showalter’s inclusion, and there is an increasing expectation that the veteran skipper will ultimately be the Mets’ choice.  As SNY’s Andy Martino puts it, a Showalter hiring “feels almost inevitable,” and “folks in the industry are convinced Showalter is getting the job unless something goes horribly wrong in final stages.”

While the 65-year-old Showalter has 20 years of managerial experience, the 46-year-old Espada has never been a manager at the big league level, though he has a long resume as a coach.  Working for the last four years as the Astros’ bench coach, Espada also has seven previous seasons of experience as a third base coach with the Yankees and Marlins, as well as stints as a special assistant to Yankees GM Brian Cashman and as a coach and coordinator in the Marlins’ farm system.

Espada has been a popular managerial candidate in recent years, and if Showalter does end up as New York’s next manager, it would represent another near-miss for the Astros coach.  Espada has been previously linked to managerial openings with the Blue Jays, Giants, Angels, Cubs, Orioles, Twins, and Rangers, and he reportedly came close to being hired by the Giants before they decided on Gabe Kapler.  Should the Mets pass on Espada, another opportunity might come quickly, as Espada has also recently spoken with the Athletics about their current managerial vacancy.

If Showalter and Espada are indeed the Mets’ final two, it is somewhat symbolic of how the club has weighed both experienced dugout voices and first-time candidates throughout their search.  Besides Showalter, the Mets also interviewed former Tigers/Angels manager Brad Ausmus and former A’s manager Bob Geren.  On the less-experienced side of the coin, the Mets also spoke with Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, and they looked to speak with Pirates bench coach Don Kelly before Kelly took himself out of consideration.

Latest On Athletics’ Manager Search

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TODAY: Espada’s interview has taken place, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).

DECEMBER 6: In addition to the recently-documented Matt Quatraro, The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli verified five other managerial candidates for the vacant Oakland skipper position. Included in the current group of candidates are a number of names already within the Oakland organization— third base coach Mark Kotsay, bullpen coach Marcus Jensen, and hitting coach Darren Bush. Rounding out the group are Boston bench coach Will Venable and Houston bench coach Joe Espada. Half of the group (Quatraro, Kotsay, and Venable) has already interviewed, with the remaining half expected to interview soon.

After 11 seasons of .528 ball under Bob Melvin, it makes sense for Oakland brass to look to Melvin’s cohorts for a successor. Kotsay is likely the most familiar name among the internal candidates, as he is a 17-year veteran and played for seven different teams during his lengthy career. Dating back to 2014 Kotsay has assumed a number of Major League roles, accumulating the titles of hitting coach, bench coach, quality control coach, and third base coach. Kotsay is light on managerial experience but is no stranger to the managerial rumor mill, being linked to recent searches conducted by Houston, Boston, and Detroit.

A former catcher, Jensen was no stranger to the big leagues either, appearing in 7 Major League seasons for as many teams. Jensen has been in the Oakland organization since 2007, serving as a hitting coach and manager for several of Oakland’s minor league affiliates. He’s served as an A’s coach at the game’s highest level since 2014.

Bush is a baseball veteran as well, though has seen a notable chunk of his playing and coaching days come on the indie ball circuit. Since joining Oakland’s minor league ranks as a coach in 2004, Bush has accrued a good deal of managerial experience at the lower levels. His consistent success as a minor league manager led to a Major League promotion, where Bush has served as a bullpen or hitting coach since 2013.

Like Kotsay, Espada has been a fixture in managerial candidate discussions for years. The Houston coach and former second-rounder has seen his fair share of success over the past four years, recently piquing the interest of the Giants, Rangers, and Cubs.

Venable is a veteran of 9 Major League seasons, including an impressive 20-20 campaign in 2013 for the Padres. Since his retirement, Venable has worked in advisory and coaching positions for the Chicago Cubs. Venable hopped over to the Red Sox organization in 2020 and served as the bench coach for this year’s resurgent Boston club. Like others on this list, Venable has turned heads as a potential manager for years, drawing interviews for recent Houston and San Francisco vacancies.

Update On Mets’ Managerial Search

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Not long after reports of the A’s conducting their first managerial interview surfaced, the Mets have begun an interview carousel of their own. SNY’s Andy Martino reports that the Mets conducted their first managerial interview today, and expect to keep the process going Tuesday. Among the identified managerial candidates include a trio of bench coaches— Houston’s Joe Espada, Tampa Bay’s Matt Quatraro, and Pittsburgh’s Don Kelly— as well as two veteran managers, Buck Showalter and Brad Ausmus.

Martino notes that the current list of candidates still has room to grow, but throws cold water on the notion that beloved Mets alumni Curtis Granderson and David Wright will interview after their names surfaced in earlier discussions. Whoever makes the shortlist and earns a shot at interviewing will meet with newly-minted GM Billy Eppler and his staff. Owner Steve Cohen will meet with vetted candidates some time after the initial round of interviews.

The identity of today’s interviewed candidate was none other than Brad Ausmus, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Ausmus has quite a few things going for his candidacy that surely helped net him the first opportunity to meet with Mets decision-makers. One such factor working in Ausmus’s favor is his relationship to Eppler, as Ausmus served as a special assistant to Eppler before being promoted to dugout manager in 2019 while the two were with the Angels. In other networking news, Fansided’s Robert Murray also notes that Ausmus is a Dartmouth alum like Mets president Sandy Alderson and assistant GM Bryn Alderson.

Unlike some of the candidates who have yet to interview, Ausmus also has a track record as a Major League manager. Between his time with the Angels and Detroit, he has compiled a 386-412 record as a manager, including two winning seasons at the helm and a playoff appearance. It probably also doesn’t hurt Ausmus’s case that his best season in Detroit coincided with Max Scherzer’s last season in the AL. Scherzer, one of the Mets’ marquee pickups this offseason, owns one of the game’s more fiery personalities and is perhaps best handled by a dugout operator who’s familiar with his tempo.

If Quatraro’s name rings a bell it may be because he interviewed with the A’s within the past couple of days. That the Tampa Bay bench coach has landed interviews for 100% of this offseason’s managerial vacancies is no surprise. The Rays have proven their division’s winningest team during Quatraro’s time as bench coach, no small feat considering the powerhouses that reside within those same confines. Martino reports that Quatraro is in line for a Tuesday interview.

There aren’t many updates for the remaining candidates of Espada, Kelly, and Showalter, though they all remain highly credible options in the wake of MLBTR’s profile of their candidacies last week. Jon Heyman does note (via Twitter) that Espada and Eppler share a “strong link” dating back to their time in the Yankees organization, and calls Espada a “serious contender”.

Matt Quatraro Interviews With Athletics; Interview With Mets Likely To Follow

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The A’s have interviewed Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro within the past few days as part of their search for a new manager, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He becomes the first known candidate to sit down with Oakland brass.

Quatraro, 48, has been regarded as a potential manager of the future for the past few years. Kevin Cash’s top lieutenant over the last three seasons in Tampa Bay, he interviewed with the Pirates and Giants over the 2019-20 offseason and sat down with the Tigers last fall. Quatraro, who played professionally for seven seasons and topped out at Triple-A, has never managed in the majors. He does have nearly two decades of coaching experience in the Rays’ organization (in addition to a 2014 stint as Indians’ assistant hitting coach). That includes four years managing in the low minors in the Tampa Bay system.

Oakland is on the hunt for a new manager after Bob Melvin’s surprising departure to take over the dugout in San Diego. For the first time in more than a decade, the A’s will go into a season without Melvin leading the charge. Former bench coach Ryan Christenson is departing to assume the same role under Melvin with the Padres, removing one potential in-house option from the mix.

The A’s are one of two teams in search of a new skipper. The other club, the Mets, has also expressed interest in Quatraro. Buster Olney of ESPN reported this morning (on Twitter) that New York was requesting permission from the Rays to interview him. Topkin reports that Tampa Bay has granted that request, writing that Quatraro could sit down with members of the New York front office as soon as tomorrow.

Latest On Mets’ Managerial Search

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10:04 pm: Martino tweets that while Granderson’s name had come up in initial discussions, he is not expected to interview for the position.

9:49 pm: Robert Murray of FanSided reports (on Twitter) that longtime big league outfielder Curtis Granderson is also under consideration for the Mets. The 40-year-old announced his retirement from playing in 2020 following a 16-year big league career that included a trio of All-Star appearances and a Silver Slugger Award.

Granderson had emerged as a respected veteran presence in clubhouses over the course of his career. He currently serves as the president of the Players Alliance, a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing accessibility within the sport for Black athletes. Granderson played four seasons with the Mets during team president Sandy Alderson’s time as the club’s GM. Prior to that, he spent four years with the Yankees — a stint that overlapped with Eppler’s time in the club’s front office.

6:35 pm: The Mets declined an option to bring back skipper Luis Rojas shortly after the end of the 2021 season. Two months later, they remain without a manager. After spending a significant chunk of the early offseason in the search for a new GM that eventually landed Billy Eppler, the Mets turned their attention to the player market last week in advance of the lockout. With clubs barred from making major league transactions for the duration of the work stoppage, the Mets and the Athletics, the other team currently without a manager, figure to zero in on those respective searches in short order.

Andy Martino of SNY reports some preliminary candidates, naming Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, Pirates bench coach Don Kelly and former MLB managers Buck Showalter and Brad Ausmus among those under early consideration. Martino cautions that’s not an exhaustive list, and it’s not clear whether everyone in that group will get an interview.

No one from that group registers as much of a surprise. None of Espada, Quatraro or Kelly has managed at the big league level, but they’ve all been rumored as part of searches elsewhere. Espada, 46, has been the bench coach in Houston for the past four seasons, working underneath both A.J. Hinch and Dusty Baker. He’s interviewed for a few different managerial openings in recent years and at one point even looked to be the favorite for the Giants job that eventually went to Gabe Kapler.

Quatraro’s name has come up a few times over the past couple offseasons. Kevin Cash’s top lieutenant over the last three years in Tampa Bay, the 48-year-old Quatraro has interviewed with the Giants, Pirates and Tigers in winters past and was reportedly a finalist for the Pittsburgh job that went to Derek Shelton. Kelly has worked underneath Shelton in the Steel City over the past two seasons. The 41-year-old interviewed with the Tigers and Red Sox last offseason and was reported to be among the top handful under consideration for the job that went to Alex Cora.

Showalter and Ausmus, meanwhile, come with significant managerial experience. The former has been one of the more accomplished skippers of the past couple decades. Showalter, now 65, landed his first big league managerial job with the Yankees in 1992. He spent four years in the Bronx, managed the D-Backs from 1998-2000, the Rangers from 2003-06 and the Orioles from 2010-18.

Over his career, Showalter won Manager of the Year Awards at three of those four stops. He’s overseen five playoff clubs (including three division winners), taking the 2014 Orioles to the AL Championship Series. Showalter hasn’t managed since being dismissed by Baltimore after the 2018 campaign, but he’s continued to express openness to a return to the dugout.

Ausmus, meanwhile, has managed at two separate stints. He spent the 2014-17 campaigns at the helm of the Tigers, then managed the Angels in 2019. That stint in Anaheim overlapped with Eppler’s tenure as Angels’ GM, fueling immediate speculation upon the latter’s hiring with the Mets that he could look to bring Ausmus to Queens.

Prior to that stint as skipper, Ausmus spent the 2018 season as a member of the Los Angeles front office. Eppler’s Angels fired Ausmus after just one season in the managerial chair, but it was reported at the time that call was made by owner Arte Moreno (perhaps not coincidentally just one day after it was announced Joe Maddon was leaving the Cubs).

AL Notes: Rangers, Angels, Quatraro

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Some notes from the American League:

  • The Rangers reinstated a trio of players from the 60-day injured list this afternoon, per a team announcement. Right-hander José Leclerc and left-handers Brock Burke and Joe Palumbo are all back on the 40-man roster, bringing Texas’ tally to 35. Those three relievers only combined for 4.1 innings in 2020. Leclerc suffered a teres major strain in July, while Burke underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in February. Palumbo, meanwhile, battled a bout of ulcerative colitis.
  • The Angels and assistant general manager Jonathan Strangio are parting ways, reports Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic (Twitter link). The Harvard alum’s contract expired October 31 and was not renewed. There’s been quite a bit of turnover in the Halos’ front office in recent weeks. The club fired general manager Billy Eppler, while former advisor Tony La Russa signed on as White Sox manager. As Ardaya notes in a follow-up tweet, Strangio had taken on a larger role in day-to-day baseball operations in the wake of Eppler’s firing. He informed the organization in August he’d be leaving at the end of the season for family reasons, Ardaya adds.
  • Before deciding on A.J. Hinch, the Tigers interviewed Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro in their managerial search, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Quatraro also drew some consideration from the Pirates and Giants for their respective vacancies last offseason. The 46-year-old has been on Kevin Cash’s coaching staff since the start of the 2018 season.
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