Royals manager Matt Quatraro shares his setup for watching games from his house
Royals manager Matt Quatraro got some good news Thursday while talking on the phone with general manager J.J. Picollo during a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays.
Quatraro, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and is quarantining at home, was watching on television when informed by Picollo that shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. had hit a home run.
“I didn’t realize how many pitches of delay it is on TV,” Quatraro said Friday in a conference call. “It was three or four pitches behind on the TV. I can’t talk to anybody now during the games because now I don’t want to know what happened.”
It’s an unusual situation for Quatraro, who shared how he’s staying plugged into the team.
Before a game, he talks with bench coach Paul Hoover, who is serving as interim manager, as well as pitching coach Brian Sweeney, third-base coach Vance Wilson, Picollo and others.
They set in place a plan for the game, but then Quatraro has to sit and watch. He has a lineup card next to him during games, along with data about the Royals that he’d have in the dugout.
That’ll be his setup for Friday when the Royals open a three-game series against the Giants in San Francisco.
“I just sit here pace around the house,” Quatraro said. “Sometimes I sit and other times I’m unable to sit.”
Quatraro said he feels fine and is hopeful of joining the team when it starts a three-game series Monday at the Texas Rangers.
It’s a frustrating situation, a feeling he’s also had about how the season has started for the Royals, who have a 1-6 record.
“The margin for error in these games is very thin, and especially (because) you’re playing two good teams right out of the gate with good pitching, good bullpens,” he said. “Little things go a long way. And that’s what kind of stands out.
“We’ve had some opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of, we’ve given a couple extra opportunities that they have taken advantage of, and that really swings the needle.”
Despite the slow start to the season, Quatraro stressed it’s early and he’s not inclined to make sweeping changes.
“We’re going to be developing, we’re going to be continuing to learn and teach, and those guys are going to continue to learn on the job and they’re good lessons,” Quatraro said. “The little things that have come up are good lessons, and they’re things that we will talk about and hopefully they come up again and we make the adjustments.”
This is not to say Quatraro is content with how things have transpired. He fully expects to see improvement on the field and in the standings.
“You sit here and watch it on TV, and you just think, ‘OK, there’s room to grow, there’s room to grow, there’s room to grow,” he said. “That’s the lens I’m looking at it through is we’re gonna look back on this whether it’s May or June or August, September, whatever and think, ‘All right, we’ve come this far from where we started.’”
This story was originally published April 7, 2023 at 12:50 PM.
