Matt Quatraro led the Royals to two consecutive winning seasons after losing 106 games in his first season as manager. Daniel Bartel / Getty Images
The Kansas City Royals have reached an agreement with manager Matt Quatraro on a three-year extension, the team announced Sunday. The new pact starts in 2027 and includes a club option for 2030.
Quatraro replaced Mike Matheny after the 2022 season, when the Royals finished 65-97. When interviewing managerial candidates, president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo sought someone who brought “creativity and thought” to the position.
“J.J. said, ‘I want someone who will challenge us, who has a different way of thinking,’” assistant general manager Scott Sharp said. “Because he wanted us to be thinking differently, too.”
Kansas City’s record wasn’t pretty in Quataro’s first season as a big-league manager, as the club lost 106 games with one of the youngest rosters in the majors.
However, the Royals were more aggressive during the 2023-24 offseason than usual. They signed ascending star Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year, $288.7 million extension and signed several free agents. The headliners from that class were starters Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, who immediately transformed Kansas City’s rotation and helped push the team to an 86-76 record and their first postseason appearance since their World Series title run in 2015.
The Royals fell back a bit in 2025, finishing third in the American League Central, but still finished with a winning record (82-80) while their rotation regressed after serving as a strength the previous year.
“He’s a genius mind,” Witt said after the Royals reached the postseason in 2024. “He’s been the perfect guy to lead us.”
Quatraro, 52, came to the Royals after one season as a third-base coach and four years as a bench coach for the Tampa Bay Rays. He also played seven seasons and managed for four seasons in Tampa Bay’s minor-league system.