It’s almost impossible to believe that the Phillies team playing now is the same one that started the season 9-19. It was a seismic decision to replace Rob Thomson, the franchise’s all-time leader in winning percentage for any manager with at least 300 games, but one that has paid off.
Legendary player, coach and manager Don Mattingly had joined the Phillies to serve as a bench coach, but on 28th April, he suddenly found himself as the team’s interim manager through to the end of the season.
It’s unlikely that he’ll continue on past this year. Despite being the leading candidate on Kalshi, with a 35% chance of getting the job, he’s said himself that at 65 he’s too old to run a ball club.
Whoever follows Mattingly next year will have a lot to live up to, as his transformation of the Phillies over a few short weeks has been nothing less than remarkable.
With the Phillies in deep trouble, Mattingly did something that many coaches wouldn’t be brave enough to do: he gave his players a break.
One of the first changes he made was to heavily reduce the pregame drills and practices. Mattingly made the call in order to help preserve the aging core of his team, and one of the biggest benefactors has been struggling shortstop Trea Turner.
Every Phillies fan has seen Turner’s slump, highlighted by the 0-for-11 streak he went on at the start of Mattingly’s stewardship. In a line which will doubtless go down in baseball folklore, Mattingly relieved Turner of batting practice and told him to ‘save [his] bullets for the game’.
The improvement was instant, with Turner going 4-for-5 and a stolen base next time out. While he may not be back to his best yet, the performance was a clear sign that Mattingly can help Turner get there.
Mattingly has also broken from Thomson’s policy of keeping key players in bad form on the field. Whereas Thomson hoped his stars could play themselves out of their slumps, Mattingly instead gives them breaks. Alec Bohm has benefited greatly from this, and returned to the line-up a changed player after a two-day rest.
This approach has lit a fire under the Phillies offense. Under Mattingly, the team have a batting average of around .275 and a .794 OPS. These are the kinds of league-leading stats that the NL East leading Atlanta Braves and World Series favorite Los Angeles Dodgers are producing.
Whether Mattingly can keep the Phillies firing until the end of the season remains to be seen. The job he’s doing now is simply remarkable, and whoever comes next will have a lot to live up to.
Don Mattingly distanced himself from becoming the new full-time Phillies manager, saying the demands of the job would be too much at his age. If it wasn’t for the fact that his son is Phillies GM Preston Mattingly, he may not have even taken the interim role.
The hot start may be enough to convince Mattingly to return to the dugout permanently, but if it doesn’t, the Phillies already know their preferred candidate.
Former Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora is the choice to manage the Phillies in 2027 and beyond. There were discussions between Cora and the team before Mattingly took over, with Cora eventually declining to take the job. He had only been dismissed by the Red Sox days before, and wanted time to reset.
There will be other suitors for Cora come the end of the season, though his relationship with President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski means the Phillies will have an advantage. If Cora does go elsewhere in 2027, the calls for Mattingly to stay will surely only get louder.
