Wednesday's decisions don't tarnish KC Royals manager Matt Quatraro

Wednesday began with the KC Royals on the cusp of owning first place in the American League Central — after winning the first three games of their four-contest road series in Cleveland, they'd tied the Guardians for the top spot and could take it for themselves with another victory.

Favorable pre-game speculation also greeted the club when CBS SportsHQ baseball insider and former big league general manager Jim Bowden suggested KC manager Matt Quatraro as a top candidate for American League Manager of the Year.

The KC Royals failed to achieve the sweep of Cleveland they and their fans so badly wanted Wednesday. Instead, the Guardians picked on Kansas City starter Michael Wacha, then on reliever Lucas Erceg, to score a come-from-behind 7-5 victory.

Almost universally, the various post-mortems of the contest focused on KC manager Matt Quatraro's decisions to extend Wacha's outing to the seventh inning and then replace him with Erceg. The circumstances warranted the scrutiny.

First, and despite retiring 10 Guardians in a row at one point and striking out the side in the second, Wacha wasn't quite as sharp as he'd been in July and August, a two-month span of excellence during which he'd gone 7-0 with a 2.47 ERA before Wednesday. He hit two batters, fought through some first-inning trouble, uncharacteristically gave up three hits (and a run) in the fifth, and coughed up a leadoff home run and a pair of singles in the seventh before Quatraro summoned Erceg, his go-to in such situations, to protect the Royals' increasingly precarious 5-3 lead.

Erceg, though, wasn't the Erceg he'd been since coming to the club from Oakland in a late trade deadline deal. The two runners Wacha left him with scored on singles before Erceg gave up the lead on another single. He hadn't allowed any other opponents to score since becoming a Royal.

That Quatraro sent Wacha out for the seventh after he'd already faced Cleveland's lineup three times, and didn't have that two-month edge, and used his closer when Wacha got into trouble, invited the questions and criticism that followed. But the facts were these: because the bullpen was tired with some of its best pieces unavailable after faring so well in the series' first three games, Quatraro needed as much from Wacha as he could get, and Erceg was the best on hand to put out the seventh-inning fire.

The moves didn't work and many (but not all) commentators and fans rushed to blame Quatraro for the 7-5 loss, with some isolated chatter fearing the decisions could work a sea change in the Royals' playoff chances.

Those sentiments, though, however correct or erroneous they may be, can't diminish the fact that Bowden is correct. Quatraro is indeed a strong candidate for AL Manager of the Year.

Matt Quatraro's managerial performance for the KC Royals

That Quatraro, the first skipper general manager J.J. Picollo has hired since taking over from Dayton Moore late in the 2023 season and then firing Mike Matheny within hours of the final game of the that campaign, is excelling in his second season is beyond dispute. After his team tied the club record for single-season losses by dropping 106 games last year, Quatraro has managed the 2024 Royals to an astonishing turnaround.

Kansas City is, after all, only a game behind Cleveland with 28 regular season games left. Even if they sweep next week's three-game series with the Royals, the Guardians can't prevail in the teams' season series, so Quatraro's club has the tie-breaker if the Royals and Cleveland end the campaign in a first-place deadlock.

And even if they don't win the Central, a spot in the playoffs looks more and more probable for the Royals, who lead Minnesota by 2.5 games for the second AL Wild Card, and Boston by 5.5 for the final AL slot.

The Royals haven't been under .500 since losing to the White Sox April 4. They're 75-59, including 34-31 on the road, heading into tonight's series opener at Houston.

And Quatraro has done his excellent work despite having one of the shakiest bullpens and one of the weakest-hitting outfields in the majors.

What he's done is nothing short of remarkable. What happened in Cleveland Wednesday shouldn't have any effect on his Manager of the Year chances.

None at all. His credentials and performance are too strong.

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