There’s no question that manager Matt Quatraro has been a key part in turning around the Royals’ fortunes since taking over as manager in 2023.

After a 56-106 debut season, he led the Royals to an 86-76 season in 2024. That included not just making the postseason, but also a Wild Card series victory over Baltimore and advancing to the Division Series against the Yankees, whom they lost to 3-1.

Expectations have been much higher in 2025, understandable after a 30-win turnaround a season ago. Unfortunately, the Royals have had a rough start in April. They are currently 9-14 and are coming off a six-game losing streak against the Yankees and Tigers. This disappointing start has made Quatraro a target of Royals fans, particularly on Twitter and other social media platforms.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a manager get this exposed in the first month of the season like Matt Quatraro. And Trey Hillman existed. #FountainsUp

— Captain William Corker US Space Force (@WillCorker) April 18, 2025

Quatraro can only control the roster to a certain extent.

He can’t magically make Salvador Perez or Vinnie Pasquantino turn things around at the plate, nor can he suddenly make the bottom of the batting order productive. Thus, I’m not sure Quatraro’s management has been “exposed” in any way (one could argue that maybe JJ Picollo has been a bit “exposed” by not improving the lineup more this offseason, but he can’t force teams to make trades or free agents to sign in Kansas City either).

At the same time, I have noticed one thing about the Royals that could be connected to Quatraro and his managing style:

The Royals have struggled to receive favorable calls at the plate this season, as well as in Quatraro’s first two years as the Royals’ manager.

According to Umpire Scorecards data, the Royals rank 23rd in PctFav with a 0.43 mark. This statistic is defined as follows, per Umpire Scorecards:

• The percentage of games played by the team in which the team had a greater total run impact than its opponent.

It’s not just this season where the Royals have a lackluster PctFav mark. Last year, they ranked 27th with a 0.43 mark. From 2023 to 2025 (under Quatraro), the Royals have a 0.44 mark, which ranks 29th during that time (only the Athletics were worse, with a 0.39 PctFav).

Now, many factors can contribute to low PctFav marks for a ball club.

A lot of it, especially on the pitching end, can be attributed to catcher framing, especially when it comes to getting calls in a favorable direction. At the same time, especially on the hitting end, can managers affect umpires to gain balls and strikes in their favor, whether intentionally or subconsciously? And if so, are more vocal managers more effective? Or are calmer ones (like Quatraro) better able to achieve that goal?

Thus, to examine this hypothesis, I decided to investigate three variables: manager ejections over a three-year period, batter and pitcher umpire impact data (as recorded on Umpire Scorecards), and team catcher framing (as measured by framing runs above average).

After considering all these factors, I believe we can gain insight into whether Quatraro’s managing style affects the calls the Royals receive at the plate in either a positive, negative, or neutral manner.

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Quatraro is One of the Calmer Managers in Baseball (Based on Ejection Data)

When it comes to judging a manager’s personality, ejections and ejection rate can be a decent indicator.

MLB umpires (and professional sports officials in general) tend to have thick skin, especially since they are not just hearing it from managers, but also from coaches, players, and unruly fans. Thus, managers who get ejected more probably tend to be on the more abrasive end when it comes to their communication style with umpires. Those who don’t get ejected as much are likely calmer and don’t rock the boat as much when it comes to arguing balls and strikes.

In 347 games as Royals manager, Quatraro has only been ejected five times (he hasn’t been ejected yet this year). That is a far cry from other managers in the league, especially those who have been in the league longer.

According to data from Baseball Reference, the current manager who has been ejected the most is Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants, who has been ejected 86 times in his 28-year career as a manager, which has included stops in San Diego and San Francisco. However, his ejection rate per year is 3.1, which ranks 10th among all managers who have managed from 2023 to 2025.

The active manager who has been ejected the most by ejection rate is the Yankees’ Aaron Boone, who has a rate of 4.9 ejections per year. Considering the number of videos Jomboy has made on Boone in his tenure, it’s not surprising that Boone is at the top of this list.

Cincinnati’s David Bell (5.3) ranks first, and the White Sox’s Pedro Grifol and Marlins’ Skip Schumaker (4.0) are tied for third, but they are not currently employed as managers for any MLB team in 2025.

For a full breakdown of managers and their ejection stats, one can dive deeper into it in the embedded PDF below.

Quatraro has averaged 1.7 ejections per year, ranking him 27th out of 40 managers in this sample. So, while Quatraro isn’t near the top of this list, he isn’t at the bottom either. Tampa’s Kevin Cash (1.6), the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts (1.1), and retired manager (and former Astros skipper) Dusty Baker (1.0) all have lower ejection rates than Quatraro.

Nonetheless, Quatraro has been one of the calmer managers in baseball, which is something that Royals fans have had to get used to after being used to Ned Yost and his fiery demeanor for a decade. That said, his demeanor doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a “bad” manager.

After all, if strong personality and ejections are the standard of “good” managing, then one could say Robert and Baker, both “Manager of the Year” Award winners, are “bad” as well.

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Yankees Near the Top of the League in PctFav From 2023-2025

From 2023 to 2025, the Royals have ranked near the bottom of the league in percent favored calls from umpires (0.44). The team with the best mark has been the New York Yankees, who have a PctFav mark of 0.63, 19 points higher than the Royals.

Here’s a look at the data in a PDF document, extracted from Umpire Scorecards.

The top five teams in terms of PctFav from 2023 to 2025 are ranked as follows:

1. Yankees (0.63)
2. Mets (0.60)
3. Cleveland (0.59)
4. Seattle (0.56)
5. Detroit (0.53)

The Yankees’ ranking first in PctFav and Aaron Boone’s leading active managers in ejections make one wonder if there’s a correlation between manager personality and the number of calls received. However, the Mets rank second, and Carlos Mendoza is only averaging 1.0 ejection per year. Cleveland’s Stephen Vogt is even more toward the bottom with a 0.5 ejection rate (as I mentioned above). Seattle’s Scott Servais ranked 13th with a 2.8 mark, and Detroit’s A.J. Hinch ranks 25th with a 1.9 mark.

Now, let’s examine the bottom five teams in PctFav from 2023 to 2025 (ranked from worst to least worst)

1. Athletics (0.39)
2. Angels (0.44)
3. Marlins (0.44)
4. Royals (0.44)
5. Nationals (0.46)

In terms of ejections per year (beyond Quatraro), A’s manager Mark Kotsay ranks eighth (3.5), Miami’s Schumaker ranks fourth (4.0), and Washington’s Dave Martinez ranks 26th. The Angels have had Phil Nevin and Ron Washington manage the club in the past three years, and Nevin ranks 5th (4.0) while Washington ranks 30th (1.5, and this includes Washington’s tenure with the Rangers.

Considering Nevin was a coach under Boone, it’s not surprising that Nevin was fiery during his Angels tenure.

Thus, managers who were on the negative end of umpire calls were not all of one type. Three of the five (Kotsay, Schumaker, and Nevin) were top-10 in ejection rate, while two (Martinez and Washington) were in the bottom half.

Now, pitching impact can be influenced by framing, so I wanted to wait until the next section to analyze that. However, I wondered if the manager’s chirping or reputation could impact the umpire’s performance.

Here’s what that breakdown looked like, organized by TotBI, which is the sum of the run impact of each missed call when the team is batting, for all games played by the team.

Ranking	Team	totBI
1	SD	19.8
2	SEA	10.81
3	CLE	4.03
4	AZ	3.75
5	CIN	-0.34
6	ATL	-1.54
7	CHC	-2.83
8	COL	-3.45
9	MIL	-3.52
10	PHI	-4.06
11	NYY	-6.08
12	BOS	-6.78
13	NYM	-7.95
14	ATH	-8.04
15	HOU	-8.75
16	LAA	-10.37
17	CWS	-13.64
18	TB	-14.48
19	WSH	-14.86
20	STL	-15.85
21	DET	-16.96
22	LAD	-21.83
23	MIA	-22.26
24	BAL	-22.53
25	MIN	-23.39
26	KC	-26.4
27	PIT	-28.32
28	TOR	-28.8
29	TEX	-30.61
30	SF	-39.02

The five teams that benefited the most from missed calls while hitting were San Diego, Seattle, Cleveland, Arizona, and Cincinnati. Bob Melvin (2.9) and Mike Shildt (2.3) have both managed the Padres and have been Top-20 managers in ejection rate. We know about Servais and Vogt. Arizona manager Torey Lovullo (2.3) also ranks 17th, and Bell ranked 1st, while new Reds manager Terry Francona (2.1) ranks 22nd.

As for the bottom (other than the Royals), the Giants had Melvin and Gabe Kapler (1.2, 31st). We are aware of Bochy with Texas (ranks 10th with a 3.1 mark). Pittsburgh’s Derek Shelton ranked 14th (2.7) while Toronto’s John Schneider ranked 24th (2.0). So, much like the five managers who benefited the most, the five managers who benefited the least were a diverse mix.

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The Royals Are Middle-of-the-Pack in Framing

So, since we have seen the batter’s impact from umpire’s missed calls, how did teams rank on a pitcher’s end when it came to missed calls? Let’s take a look at the totPI impact data via Umpire Scorecards.

Rank	Team	totPI
1	NYY	53.53
2	NYM	51.4
3	SF	42.36
4	TOR	32.26
5	TEX	30.52
6	CLE	26.66
7	DET	24.95
8	ATL	23.82
9	PIT	22.09
10	SEA	18.87
11	MIL	18.63
12	KC	17.98
13	BAL	15.91
14	COL	11.08
15	CHC	10.8
16	CWS	9.88
17	TB	7.93
18	MIN	5.49
19	AZ	3.98
20	LAD	1.47
21	BOS	1.44
22	MIA	-0.11
23	SD	-2.64
24	LAA	-3.59
25	STL	-4.59
26	HOU	-6.01
27	PHI	-9.8
28	CIN	-10.2
29	WSH	-15.77
30	ATH	-34.07

The Yankees, Mets, Giants, Blue Jays, and Rangers are the Top-5 teams in terms of benefiting the most from umpires’ missed calls on the pitching end. The Astros, Phillies, Reds, Nationals, and Athletics were the most affected.

Now, let’s take a look at the framing data from the past three years and see where teams ranked in terms of framing runs above average.

Rank	Team	Framing Runs
1	NYY	36
2	SFG	34
3	TEX	25
4	CLE	21
5	TOR	17
6	NYM	17
7	DET	14
8	SEA	13
9	ATL	13
10	MIL	13
11	PIT	5
12	ARI	2
13	TBR	1
14	MIN	-2
15	BAL	-3
16	MIA	-5
17	KCR	-7
18	CHW	-8
19	CHC	-10
20	STL	-10
21	SDP	-11
22	LAA	-12
23	BOS	-12
24	COL	-12
25	LAD	-12
26	CIN	-18
27	OAK	-19
28	PHI	-22
29	WSN	-25
30	HOU	-27

The only club not in the Top 5 in framing runs and totPI impact is the Mets, who rank 6th in framing runs. Cleveland, who ranks fourth in framing runs, just missed the Top-5 cut in totPI, as they rank 6th in that category.

The inverse is also true, and probably even more so than the positive impact of missed calls.

All five teams in the bottom five of totPI also ranked in the bottom five in framing runs. The order varied slightly (for example, Houston ranked 30th in framing runs but 26th in total PI), but the worst five remained consistent in both forms of measurement.

The Royals were an interesting example in this dataset, as they were not as negatively affected by missed umpire calls on the pitching end.

Despite a poor reputation, the Royals ranked 17th in framing runs from 2023 to 2025. As a result, they ranked much better in total PI, coming in 12th with a score of 17.98. That was better than other clubs, such as Baltimore (15.91 total PI) and Tampa (7.93), which performed much better in framing than the Royals (Baltimore ranks 15th and Tampa ranks 13th).

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What Can We Take Away From This Data?

Based on the data from the three sections above, I have drawn three conclusions.

1. Managers’ personalities or reputations have little to no effect on missed calls in the strike zone, especially from a hitting perspective.
2. Framing skills of catchers have the strongest correlation with missed classes in the strike zone from a pitching perspective.
3. Quatraro’s personality and lack of ejections don’t seem to be positively or negatively affecting the strike zone on the Royals’ behalf.

Point two is the most straightforward conclusion. The Yankees ranked highest in TotPI with a 55.53 mark. That said, they also had collected 36 framing runs above average from 2023 to 2025, which led the league. It may be easy to say, “Oh, Aaron Boone’s chirping is giving extra strikes to Yankees pitchers”. However, the reality is that Yankees catchers like Austin Wells are exceptionally skilled at framing pitches, and that is why umpires often miss calls against them.

A positive aspect of the Royals’ catcher framing ability is that they have made tremendous strides under manager Mike Quatraro and bench coach Paul Hoover, who oversees the catchers.

In 2022, Mike Matheny‘s last year as manager, the Royals were 21 framing runs BELOW average. That is 14 runs worse than the past three years COMBINED. Kansas City won’t ever be at the top of the league in terms of framing, but they aren’t a total drain like they were under Matheny, and it’s helping them gain more positive missed calls on the pitching end as a result.

Regarding hitters, there was no correlation between manager ejections and missed calls when their team was at bat. The top five in each group (both top and bottom) had a mix of managers in terms of combativeness. Thus, I think missed calls for teams when they’re up at the plate are more due to randomness than to the manager’s personality or influence, which confirms my initial conclusion.

Lastly, because of my first conclusion, I think Quatraro gets more grief than necessary from Royals fans who want him to show more fire. He was a long-time bench coach under Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash, who has averaged only 1.6 ejections per game, ranking 29th among MLB managers. Thus, like Nevin with Boone in New York, Quatraro has seemed to borrow a lot from his former colleague in Tampa, especially in the personality department. Considering Cash has a 0.538 winning percentage as a manager, that’s not a bad model for Quatraro to follow.

I understand that Royals fans are accustomed to managers like Yost and even Whitey Herzog back in the day, who were known for their confrontations with umpires. However, data from past articles have illustrated that manager ejections have a dubious impact on winning and motivating players.

While my data dive could still undergo further iterations, I still believe that most of the data supports the notion that while it’s fun to see managers get after umpires and rile up a crowd, their personality doesn’t affect balls and strikes in any way.

Quatraro is a calm presence in the Royals’ clubhouse who will manage the same way game after game, whether this team has lost six in a row or wins six in a row.

Honestly, that’s precisely what we should want as Royals fans. This is especially true for a relatively young group of players, particularly hitters, who are still trying to figure out how to be a winning ball club, not just for one season, but consistently for years to come.

Photo Credit: Steven Senne | AP