Rays promote Matt Quatraro to bench coach

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.-The Tampa Bay Rays have promoted Matt Quatraro from third base coach to bench coach on Manager Kevin Cash's major league coaching staff.
Quatraro (kwuh-TRAH-roe), who turns 45 on November 14, becomes the 10th bench coach in club history, following Frank Howard (1998-99), Bill Russell (2000), Hal McRae (2001), Billy Hatcher (2001-02), John McLaren (2003-05), Bill Evers (2006-07), Dave Martinez (2008-14), Tom Foley (2015-17) and Charlie Montoyo (2018). Montoyo was recently named manager for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Next season will be Quatraro's 24th in professional baseball and 16th in a coaching capacity. Last season, Quatraro returned to the Rays organization after spending the previous four seasons (2014-17) with the Cleveland Indians as major league assistant hitting coach. Prior to joining the Indians, Quatraro was the Rays minor league hitting coordinator from 2010-13. He also spent four seasons as a minor league manager in the Rays organization, going 196-228 (.462) with Class-A Bowling Green (2009), Class-A Columbus (2008) and Short-A Hudson Valley (2006-07). His coaching career began midway through the 2004 season, as a catching instructor and coach with Hudson Valley.
An eighth-round selection by the Rays in the 1996 June Draft, Quatraro played seven seasons in the Rays system as a catcher, first baseman and outfielder, reaching Triple-A Durham in 2002. He became the first player in organization history to hit for the cycle on July 6, 1997 against Class-A Hickory. Over 415 career minor league games, he hit .286/.343/.416 (415-for-1,451) with 23 home runs and 202 RBI.
Quatraro graduated from Old Dominion University with a history degree and was named the 1996 ODU Male Athlete of the Year and Male Scholar Athlete of the Year. He and his wife, Chris, live in Albany, N.Y., with their sons, George and Leo.