Royals Hire New Manager and I Couldn’t Be Less Excited

The Kansas City Royals announced their new manager late Sunday afternoon, and to be honest, I couldn't be less excited about the team's choice.

The Royals announced they have hired Matt Quatraro as the team's new manager. Quatraro has spent the last five years ago as a coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, the last four as Ray's Manager Kevin Cash's bench coach. Prior to that, he was the assistant hitting coach for Cleveland from 2014-2017 on Terry Francona's staff.

On paper, Quatraro sounds great. During four of his five seasons as a coach for the Ray's the team reached the postseason, including a World Series appearance in 2020. While working for Cleveland, the team made the World Series in 2016, and their offense was ranked first in doubles, fourth in walks, and fifth in OPS.

Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman said the following in a release:

"Matt is widely respected throughout baseball with a proven record and tangible contributions in two organizations that built winning cultures through creativity and innovation. We are thrilled to welcome Matt, his wife Chris, and sons George and Leo to the Kansas City community."

Forgive me, but I'm just not that excited about his hiring. Maybe Sherman and Royals VP of Baseball Operations JJ Picollo see something that I don't. I hope they do.

The quotes from Picollo and Sherman are all blah, blah, blah, about Quatraro being respected in baseball and bringing a winning culture to the team. The quote from Sherman above perhaps comes the closest to explaining why they hired him.

As a fan, I'm tired of hearing about building a winning culture. I'm tired of being promised the next big thing. I'm tired of getting excited about the veteran whose best days are behind him coming back home. Give me a team to get excited about.

I'm certainly not excited about Quatraro, and at this point not excited at the team's prospects of actually getting players that will dramatically improve the team's fortunes next year. Let's see what the winter meetings in San Diego bring this December. Let's see if there's truly anything to get excited about for next year. Right now, I'm just not feeling it. Hopefully, the Royals' brain trust proves me wrong.