Winter Meetings: How Royals plan to proceed with major league, developmental coaching staff
.jpg "Kansas City Royals’ third base coach Vance Wilson looks on as Salvador Perez rounds third base after Perez’s home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)")
The Kansas City Royals and first-year manager Matt Quatraro will round out the major-league coaching staff in the coming weeks. It will feature several holdovers from the previous staff under Mike Matheny, but the group will definitely take on a different look and some of the returners will take on different roles.
Vance Wilson, who interviewed for the manager position, will return as third base coach and add major-league field coordinator to his duties. He’d previously served as the infield coach, but the Royals added José Alguacil to their coaching staff in that role.
Former bullpen coach Larry Carter will not return as part of the major-league staff, but the Royals intend to keep him in the organization in a yet-to-be-determined role in player development.
John Mabry will not return to the organization. The Royals will not hire another hitting coach to replace Mike Tosar, who joined Pedro Grifol’s staff with the Chicago White Sox.
So far the additions joining Quatraro have come in the form of bench coach Paul Hoover, a former minor-league teammate of Quatraro’s and a fellow former member of the Tampa Bay Rays coaching staff, and new pitching coach Brian Sweeney, hired away from the Cleveland Guardians, along with Alguacil.
“We’re trying to simplify things a little bit,” Royals executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo said. “Even though we’re getting a little larger in our staff, we’re trying to simplify things and give coaches specific duties instead of being a generalist.”
The Royals have not made the hiring of former Minnesota Twins assistant minor-league pitching coordinator Zach Bove official, but a source confirmed Bove is set to become the assistant pitching coach for the Royals. That hire is expected to be announced after the hiring of a new bullpen coach.
The pitching department/coaches received the biggest overhaul this offseason following a season when the Royals ranked near or at the bottom of the majors in ERA (4.70, 27th of 30), walks (590, 29th), walks plus hits per innings pitched (1.47, 30th), opponent batting average (.271, 29th), strikeouts per nine innings (7.57, 28th), walks per 9 (3.74, 29th) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.02, 30th).
From the time the club announced the firing of Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred, Picollo said they planned to retain hitting coaches, including Alec Zumwalt and Keoni DeRenne.
The support staff for the major-league club will also remain largely intact. Advanced scouting analyst/strategist Andy Ferguson, bullpen catcher/strategist Parker Morin, bullpen catcher/strategist Allan de San Miguel and batting practice pitcher Miguel Garcia will all return.
Preparing their pitchers
Picollo has pushed back against the idea that the Royals struggles with developing pitching are primarily a result of deficiencies in the farm system.
“We don’t feel like our guys have a hard time getting through the minor leagues,” Picollo said. “It’s what they’ve done in the major leagues. You go back and look at what they did in the minor leagues, they didn’t really hit any true speed bumps.
“(Jackson) Kowar did a little bit this year, but he was working on a lot of different things and trying to get his fastball and changeup to play off each other better. It was almost like we’re willing to take a step backwards to take two steps forward in the long run.”
Instead, Picollo has framed the inconsistency in developing young major-league-ready starting pitching as a function of the transition from the minors to the majors.
“It’s really been the jump to the big leagues that’s been the biggest hurdle so far,” Picollo said. “So simplifying things in the major leagues is a focus. It sounds so simple, but it’s really throwing strike one. Our ball-to-strike ratio isn’t terrible. It’s actually better when we’re behind in the count, so it shows you they have the ability to get into counts again. It’s more of that 0-0 count mentality all the time.”
Picollo asserted that the heavy emphasis on game planning may have hurt some of the young pitchers and inadvertently taken away some of what they do naturally.
Player Development changes
The Royals will make changes to their player development staffing. Senior director of pitching Paul Gibson will remain in his role overseeing the pitching department, but Mitch Stetter will move from manager of pitching performance to director of pitching performance and handle a large chunk of the day-to-day duties.
Nate Adcock, who had been in the pro scouting department, will become the assistant director of pitching performance. Adcock’s duties will include scouting amateur players as well as working in player development.
Justin Friedman, a former minor leaguer drafted by White Sox, had joined Royals in a part-time capacity, but he’ll move into a full-time role based out of Arizona working with pitching development.
The Royals will have a new pitching coach at Single-A Quad Cities. Steve Luebber will not return.
On the hitting side, former Double-A hitting coach Abraham Nunez will now be the assistant hitting coordinator/Latin American coordinator.
