Matt Quatraro found a fit with Kansas City Royals as much as they found a fit in him

Those involved described the Kansas City Royals’ managerial interview process as a two-way screening: While the Royals sorted through their observations and assessments of Matt Quatraro as their potential skipper, he also interviewed them to find out if the organization would provide the sort of backing he was seeking.

The Royals formally introduced Quatraro, 48, as the 18th full-time manager in club history in a news conference Thursday morning at Kauffman Stadium. The former Tampa Bay Rays bench coach will step into the first major-league managerial position of his career after 19 years as a coach and instructor in the major and minor leagues.

After the interview process, both parties felt confident in the prospect of a partnership and expressed optimism about the results it will ultimately yield for the Royals.

“The thing that I was really looking for was that stability, that support,” Quatraro said. “When I say stability, I realize this job is not stable by nature. You win. You lose. I asked the question of them, ‘What does progress or success (look like). Is it a set number of wins? Is it just progress?’

“What came back was trusting the processes we have in place. Are we actually walking the walk of what we’re talking about right now? Are we all collaborating? Is that back and forth there where the analysts can bring us stuff, but we can also say to them, ‘No, that’s wacky. Let’s rework this.’”

Quatraro takes over a club that went 65-97 this season and finished in last place in the AL Central, nine wins shy of their total from 2021.

“You can say all you want about processes and things, but at the end of the day, the big leagues is about winning baseball games,” Quatraro said. “So we’re hopefully going to win more games and fight our way to the top of the division. How long that takes and what the bumps in the road look like along the way, I can’t sit here and tell you.”

Quatraro’s resume includes one season as the Rays’ third base coach in 2018, the past four seasons as their bench coach, four seasons as an assistant hitting coach with Cleveland and 10 seasons as an instructor, coach, manager and hitting coordinator in the Rays’ farm system.

Quatraro, who went to high school just outside of Albany, N.Y., spent parts of seven seasons in the minors with the Rays (1996-2002) as a catcher. He climbed as far as Triple-A.

Quatraro shares an alma mater with Royals first baseman/designated hitter Vinnie Pasquantino. Both are products of the Old Dominion baseball program. ODU inducted Quatraro into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

“It was really clear how he connected with everybody he came in contact with, his humility, his ability to explain to us what his decision process — what that looks like — was very clear,” Royals executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo said. “He was very composed throughout the entire process, which makes us feel very good about how somebody is going to react in the dugout.

“But it was also pretty obvious that the people he has been around in his career have shaped his thoughts, his beliefs and how he will make decisions moving forward.”

During Quatraro’s five seasons as part of the Rays’ coaching staff under manager Kevin Cash, the club finished no lower than third place in its division, won a pair of division titles, made the playoffs four times, won the AL pennant and went to the World Series in 2020.

In four seasons with Quatraro as an assistant hitting coach with Cleveland on manager Terry Francona’s staff, that club won two division titles, went to the playoffs twice, won the AL pennant in 2016 and lost the World Series to the Chicago Cubs in an extra-innings Game 7.

“Over the last six weeks, we’ve talked a lot about organizational change and development, adapting, process improvement, and J.J. went right to work in his new role resulting today in something the club is very excited about, the naming of Matt Quatraro as the next manager,” Royals CEO and chairman John Sherman said.

Sherman lauded Picollo and the Royals’ baseball operations staff for what he described as a “rigorous process,” during witch Quatraro “rose to the top.”

The Royals’ managerial search included interviews with seven seven candidates, including three internal candidates: bench coach Pedro Grifol, third base Vance Wilson and Triple-A manager Scott Thorman.

The Chicago White Sox announced they’d hired Grifol, who’d been with the Royals since 2013, as their new manager Thursday morning.

Candidates from outside the organization who interviewed for the Royals’ job included Los Angeles Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, Philadelphia Phillies third base coach Dusty Wathan and Boston Red Sox bench coach Will Venable.

Quatraro inherits part of the previous coaching staff, including senior director of hitting performance Alex Zumwalt, assistant hitting coach Keoni De Renne, special assignment hitting coach Mike Tosar and first base coach Damon Hollins. Picollo said at the end of the season that those coaches would be retained.

The status of major league coaches John Mabry and Larry Carter remains uncertain, as does that of Wilson and the strategists/analysts who’d been part of the previous major-league staff.

Quatraro will have input in the hiring of the club’s new pitching coach and the rest of the major-league staff.

Quatraro had been a candidate for several managerial openings in recent years, including this offseason with the Chicago White Sox and Miami Marlins, as well as past managerial posts with the Oakland A’s, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers.

The previous two Royals managers, Ned Yost and Mike Matheny, were in their respective second stints as managers in the major leagues.

Yost went on to manage for 10 years, setting a franchise record for wins (746-839) while winning back-to-back AL pennants in 2014 and 2015 and a World Series championship in 2015.

Matheny’s tenure lasted just three years, including a pandemic-shortened 60-game slate in 2020, and ended with his dismissal last month following the Royals’ fifth-place finish in the AL Central. Matheny compiled a record of 165-219 with the Royals.

Trey Hillman was the last first-time manager hired by the Royals. Hired before the 2008 season, Hillman was fired 35 games into his third season after posting a record of 152-207.

Get to know new Royals manager Matt Quatraro on today’s SportsBeat KC podcast episode