{"id":662862,"date":"2026-04-04T14:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/662862\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T14:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:41:13","slug":"how-matt-quatraros-seat-in-the-royals-dugout-could-get-hot-this-season-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/662862\/","title":{"rendered":"How Matt Quatraro’s Seat in the Royals’ Dugout Could Get Hot This Season – Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn January, as their search for an established big bat to boost their offense seemed stalled again, the Kansas City Royals suddenly gave manager <\/a>Matt Quatraro<\/a> a three-year contract extension. Clearly calculated to help sustain the franchise renaissance triggered in the fall of 2022 by the replacement of head baseball man Dayton Moore with J.J. Picollo, and then manager Mike Matheny<\/a> with Matt Quatraro<\/a>, the extension kicks in next season.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOn its face, the deal gives Quatraro, whose 2023 Royals lost 106 games only to shockingly end the club\u2019s pitiful 35-year absence from the playoffs in 2024, a big vote of confidence and some job security.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut as an old baseball saying goes, managers are hired to be fired, a fate that Ned Yost<\/a>, despite leading Kansas City to two straight World Series and winning one, might have met after his Royals never again had a winning season and lost over 100 games in each of the last two years before he retired. And major league history is replete with examples of managers axed well before their multi-season contracts expired.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, just how secure is Quatraro? Perhaps not as much as his extension suggests.\n<\/p>\n

\tWhat Could Happen This Season to Threaten Matt Quatraro\u2019s Royals Future?<\/p>\n

\n\tProbably not much \u2026 with the emphasis on \u201cprobably\u201d. At least in the short term, skippering the Royals to two consecutive winning seasons (2024 and 2025) after they hadn\u2019t posted one since 2015 puts Quatraro on good ground. Only a monstrously catastrophic season, like the Chicago White Sox suffered by losing 121 times in 2024<\/a>, could compel Picollo to fire the only manager he\u2019s hired since taking the club\u2019s reins from Moore.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that\u2019s not likely to happen. Barring the uncanny string of injuries that dealt the starting rotation such a collective blow last year, Kansas City\u2019s starters appear set to give this club plenty of chances to win.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe bullpen might be a different matter. The major league season is so new, and the sample size consequently so small, that trying to draw any firm conclusions about the relief corps is folly. But Quatraro\u2019s bullpen management has been an oft-criticized aspect of his in-game decision-making, and his recent ill-fated decision to summon <\/a>Carlos Est\u00e9vez<\/a> to protect last Saturday night\u2019s slim ninth-inning 2-0 lead against Atlanta further fueled that fire. Predictably bad after his disconcerting Cactus League performances, Est\u00e9vez choked up the lead and a walk-off grand slam that handed the Braves a 6-2 win and Quatraro a blistering dose of criticism.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNot unless the Royals miss the playoffs by a half-game or a full game, though, will that gut-punch loss make a difference in the season. But an accumulation of additional questionable bullpen decisions in high-leverage, late-game situations won\u2019t help Quatraro or his club. (Fortunately, he has Lucas Erceg<\/a> and Matt Strahm<\/a> to fall back on should Est\u00e9vez not regain his major league-leading 42-save form of 2025).\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThen there\u2019s the offense, a sore spot the Royals can\u2019t seem to solve. Yes, they battered Minnesota for 13 runs in Wednesday night\u2019s Kauffman Stadium fog, but because the season is so young, there\u2019s more than enough time for the bats to soften. It won\u2019t be Quatraro\u2019s fault if they do, but big league managers too frequently suffer from their players\u2019 faults and flaws.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFinally, a return to mediocrity will spell trouble for Quatraro. No one blames him for his club\u2019s franchise record-tying 106 losses in 2023 \u2014 after all, the Royals conceded even before the season began that it would be an \u201cevaluation\u201d year, and Quatraro had never managed in the big leagues before. But a trip to the playoffs, two straight winning seasons, and some important offseason acquisitions<\/a> tend to irreversibly raise expectations. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, finishing well below .500 in 2026 \u2014 an unlikely event, to be sure \u2014 will move Quatraro toward shakier ground.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis season, then, could prove pivotal for Quatraro. Although the three-year contract extension he received this winter demonstrates the club\u2019s confidence in its skipper, front office faith in big league managers can be stunningly fragile.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo fragile, in fact, that his contract extension notwithstanding, Quatraro\u2019s seemingly secure seat in Kansas City\u2019s dugout could heat up before this season ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In January, as their search for an established big bat to boost their offense seemed stalled again, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,936,2123,55,2596,2595,8887,2602,4,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-662862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-royals","12":"tag-kansascity","13":"tag-kansascityroyals","14":"tag-manager","15":"tag-matt-quatraro","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116346964272199214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}