Why the Royals tabbed Quatraro as manager

This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers' Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY -- When Royals owner John Sherman made a change in baseball operations leadership in September, firing president of baseball operations Dayton Moore and promoting executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo, it was increasingly clear that Sherman wanted to see change throughout the organization.

And it started with the data.

“We have the data. That is not a question,” Sherman said on Sept. 21. “It’s really about how you use it and where is it in its prominence when you’re going through Draft preparation, when you’re going through the analysis of a trade. I think that’s the issue. It’s not developing the data. We’ve got more data than anybody wants; it’s unbelievable.

“It’s using it in the proper way and making it prominent when you have decisions about people and systems and other things. It helps take emotion out. Anecdotes are fine, but I really want to see what’s underneath those stories. It’s really about making that a priority when we’re making decisions.”

Fast forward two months, and change is here. The Royals hired Matt Quatraro as their manager last week, introducing the 48-year-old and his family in a news conference on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium. Quatraro comes to Kansas City after holding a bevy of coaching positions in the Minor and Major Leagues, including the last four seasons as the Rays’ bench coach. He also spent four seasons as Cleveland's assistant hitting coach.

Tampa Bay and Cleveland are two organizations Sherman has pointed to in the past as models for small-market success.

Quatraro’s steady and calm presence was apparent throughout the nearly two hours he met with media, first in a big group and then in a small group, and so was how he’ll approach the first Major League managerial position of his career. He emphasized that he doesn’t want to micromanage any of his coaches, and that “everyone has a voice,” especially the players.

That resonated with several players who tuned in to the press conference and talked to Quatraro last week.

“I’ve told all of them, whatever you feel we need to do in this organization -- on the field, off the field -- you’re not going to hurt my feelings,” Quatraro said. “You need to let us know that. This is their team. There’s no manager of a Major League team without those 26 guys. We’re going to listen to them.”

And yes, data came up. Quatraro echoed what we’ve heard from Sherman, Picollo and plenty of others over the past two months.

“Most teams have the same amount of data,” Quatraro said. “And it’s a matter of opening up the lines of communication between field staff, front office, R&D, strength and conditioning, everybody. That’s what I plan to do and what [I want] our staff to do.”

The Royals see Quatraro as the ideal fit to bridge all those departments into one cohesive unit focused on progress on the field. Over and over in this manager search, “collaborator” and “communicator” were the criteria we kept hearing when we asked what the Royals were looking for in their new manager.

Quatraro’s quiet confidence during his press conference on Thursday gave a glimpse into his managerial style. Data and analytics are the buzz words everyone likes to mention, but Quatraro would rather talk about the process that leads to decisions.

It was clear he wanted to use all the information at his disposal to make the best decision.

“More than anything, it’s just being willing to accept a different way to look at things,” Quatraro said. “There’s a tremendous amount of randomness in the game of baseball. To think you can control everything by a decision that I make, or J.J. makes, sometimes you just have to let go of the fact that you have ultimate control over what happens. Acceptance lends itself to the data.

“In my mind, data doesn’t make the decisions, it informs the decisions, and it creates more questions to ask that help you make better decisions down the road.”