Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro hired as Royals Manager

Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro has been hired by the Kansas City Royals to be their next manager, a logical fit for a rebuilding club looking to mold itself after successful smaller market franchises like Cleveland and Tampa Bay, and a long overdue promotion for Q.

Quatraro came to the Rays organization from Cleveland, where he worked as a hitting coach under Terry Francona from 2010-2017. He was promoted to bench coach for the Rays from third base coach four years ago and has served five years total on Tampa Bay’s big league staff.

An eighth round draftee of the 1996 expansion Devil Rays as a catcher out of Old Dominion, Quatraro retired before the 2003 season without reaching higher than Triple-A, and began his coaching career in the Rays minor league system in 2004, where he worked until 2010. In total, he departs Tampa Bay this time with 18 years of service.

Popular with players but one of the more serious personalities in the clubhouse, his departure will surely be felt; however, it seems likely the Rays will be well suited in identifying his replacement.

Tampa Bay has had great success promoting internally for many roles on the big league staff, and may even look internally to their third base coach yet again in looking to fill the bench coach role, as Cash did with Quatraro, and Charlie Montoyo before him.

Current third base coach Rodney Linares will be managing the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic and was a manager in the Astros minor league system from 2007-2018 before joining the Rays big league staff.

If such a move did happen, a leading candidate to join the big league staff would then be Triple-A manager Brady Williams, as noted by Marc Topkin. Williams has worked his way up through every level of the Rays minor league system as a manager, beginning with Low-A in 2006 and reaching Triple-A in 2019, where he remains today.