Waiting Him Out
Don Mattingly has the Phillies playing the best baseball in the National League since late April. He still does not have the job past this season.
Philadelphia president Dave Dombrowski confirmed Wednesday that the club will not make Mattingly’s interim tag permanent before the postseason, even with a 78-51 record on his watch. “We have felt it is better to wait until our season is complete,” Dombrowski said. The timing stings a little: on the very same day, both the Mets and the Red Sox turned their own interim managers, Andy Green and Chad Tracy, into full-time hires.
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A Job Mattingly Never Expected
Mattingly, 65, was not the Phillies’ first choice. Philadelphia fired Rob Thomson in the spring after a 9-19 start buried the season before it began, and the front office went after Alex Cora first. Cora stayed in Boston. Mattingly, already on staff, stepped in instead, and the results have been hard to argue with: a team that looked finished in April is now playing October-caliber baseball.
That history with Cora has not gone away. Dombrowski ran the Red Sox when Cora managed there, and multiple reports say he would still like to bring him to Philadelphia if the door ever opens. It puts Mattingly in an odd spot: he is outperforming expectations and still auditioning for a job he already holds.
The Résumé Behind the Interim Tag
This is not new ground for Mattingly. He spent five seasons managing the Dodgers and seven more with the Marlins before Philadelphia came calling, and this partial season with the Phillies is his 13th as a big league manager. The career record now sits at 967 wins and 1,001 losses. A deep playoff run this October would make it very awkward to hand the job to somebody else. A quiet exit would make Dombrowski’s decision a lot easier. Either way, Philadelphia has decided the answer can wait.
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