3 reasons why the KC Royals won't fire Matt Quatraro

Sunday's 5-2 victory over New York brought the curtain down on a distressing KC Royals season. There will be no club curtain call or celebration of a job well done. Not for this team, which Saturday evening tied the 2005 club's franchise record for most losses (106) in a season.

The 2023 campaign's end also means Matt Quatraro, the man general manager J.J. Picollo hired to manage his team after firing Mike Matheny a year ago, has much to think about this winter. "Troubled" is, thanks to those 106 losses, a fitting description of Quatraro's first go-round as a big league skipper — Matheny never oversaw so many losses in a season; nor did Trey Hillman, Tony Muser or, although he twice came close, Ned Yost. And it took the combined efforts of Tony Peña Sr., Bob Schaefer, and Buddy Bell to lose 106 times in 2005.

Dropping so many games typically damages major league managers' careers and puts them squarely on the proverbial hot seat. Is that where Quatraro should find himself after this season? Will Picollo fire him and find someone else to guide the Royals on the field?

No. Quatraro was never on the hot seat, and isn't now. He's set for 2024.

Here's why.

The KC Royals won't fire Matt Quatraro after only one season

Although there are other reasons Picollo won't send his manager packing (more on those in a moment), that Quatraro has just a season on the job is perhaps the most fundamental. One year managing a bad (albeit recently improving) club simply isn't a true test. Quatraro deserves, and will get, more time to prove himself.

Next reason?

The 2023 season was never going to be a good one for the KC Royals

Kansas City didn't give Quatraro a team with which he could sustain success. Instead, the club dedicated itself to what Picollo often referred to as an "evaluation season", an honest but not-so-subtle signal that winning regularly wasn't in the cards.

The team's candid concession helps explain why Quatraro was never expected to win this season, and why he won't be punished for losing. By design, 2023 was a campaign for observing, studying, and scrutinizing players; determining who could, and couldn't, help the Royals build and galvanize what Picollo fondly refers to as a "core" was paramount.

As a consequence, Picollo didn't spend last winter loading the roster with expensive, uber-talented new players. Yes, he added a few new faces, sold Ryan O'Hearn's contract to Baltimore before the season started and let Hunter Dozier go after it did, but younger, less-established Royals with long-term potential were clearly a priority.

And Picollo ultimately enhanced the future by trading performing players primarily for prospects — gone by the time the trade deadline expired, for example, were Aroldis Chapman to Texas, Scott Barlow to San Diego, Nicky Lopez to the Braves, and Ryan Yarbrough to the Dodgers. Playing greener players more often became the norm.

So it was, then, that Quatraro's Royals weren't very good. They were never designed to be, and he won't be fired for not winning with such a club.