The Phillies will assess their play with team meetings. Good luck making sense of the defense.

MIAMI — Don Mattingly wants to peek under the hood.

One week after the Phillies installed him as the interim manager, Mattingly will meet with multiple departments during the upcoming homestand to review all aspects of the team’s play, a periodic exercise that the Blue Jays undertook when he was Toronto’s bench coach.

“It’s something I like,“ Mattingly said. ”It’s like, where are we as a group? And it’s everybody in there. It’s not just me and another guy. It’s the whole staff, part of the front office, whatever."

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Good luck making sense of the team’s defense.

Based on metrics and the eye test, the Phillies are among the worst defensive teams in the sport. But the depth of their problems varies depending on the data point.

To wit: The Phillies were last in the majors by a sizable margin with minus-27 defensive runs saved entering play Monday. (The A’s were next-to-last at minus-7). But outs above average, a range-based metric, had the Phillies tied for 26th, ahead of the Mariners and Tigers.

Bryson Stott ranked among the worst second basemen in defensive runs saved (minus-3) but among the best in outs above average (plus-4).

This much is clear: More balls have gotten through the Phillies’ infield than usual, which has contributed to a .352 batting average on balls in play against them.

Are they unlucky? Is their positioning a problem? Is it something else?

Probably all of the above.

“I do think there’s some luck involved,” infield coach Bobby Dickerson said. “A data person will say, ‘No, I don’t believe in luck.’ Well, the truth is, if it was so factual, then the smartest team, whoever that is, would be the No. 1 defensive positioning team every year.”

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Dickerson said the Phillies constantly review how they’re positioning defenders. He gets a report after each game that shows three data points on every ball in play: where the defender was positioned, the recommendation for where the defender should’ve been positioned, and the average positioning around the league.

“All of those, a lot of times they’re different,” Dickerson said. “That tells me there’s some randomness to it.”

Dickerson cited multiple variables, including whether a runner is being held on base and if a pitcher mislocates a pitch to a specific hitter.

“Let’s say [Bryce] Harper has to hold a runner [at first base],” Dickerson said. “Now Stott needs to cheat a little to be able to get to the base if they’re stealing. So now he’s no longer in the recommended position, and the ball goes through the four-hole where it would’ve been caught if nobody was on base.

“As the infield coach, I want my guys to catch what they get to, not drop it, and throw it accurately to their friend. That’s the things that we work on. We talk about [controlling] what you can control.”

But Dickerson also knows the bottom line: The Phillies haven’t gotten to enough balls, for whatever reason.

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“For me, where we are right now, after a month, we have to be better at that,” he said. “I do believe we’ve tried to do a little bit more at times, which has caused mistakes. Maybe looking for something extra, a double-play ball that’s not really a double-play ball. So, it gets forced maybe here or there.

“But after one month, I’ve seen worse months in my career defensively. I try to measure it, and some [metrics] have us decent and some have us horrible. If I was going to court, I’d go find all the good stuff.”

It’s all part of what Mattingly intends to dig into this week.

“I think we look at everything that’s happened up to this point,” Mattingly said. “It’s like, when we make a bobble or don’t make a play, it’s came back to hurt us, right? I don’t think, ‘Oh, there’s more balls getting through the infield. What are we doing?’ I’m thinking, ‘Let’s just keep an eye on it.’”

Cue up the Durantula scoreboard graphics.

Jhoan Duran will return from the injured list Tuesday “unless something weird happens,” according to Mattingly. The star closer has been out since April 11 with a strained oblique muscle in his left side.

Duran’s fastball clocked in at 100 mph in the bullpen here. The Phillies considered having him make a minor-league appearance but determined it wasn’t necessary. They treated the bullpen session like an appearance.

» READ MORE: Phillies closer Jhoan Duran expected to return from injured list Tuesday

“He was basically cleared to be active today as far as medical,” Mattingly said. “But then talking with Caleb [Cotham] and the pitching guys, they said any time we would send a guy out and he had anything like that intensity, they’d give him two days. So, that’s why we’re doing it [Tuesday].”

The Phillies had only one ninth-inning save opportunity in Duran’s absence. Brad Keller recorded a save Friday night against the Marlins.

Mattingly expressed his condolences to the family of longtime Yankees radio announcer John Sterling, who died Monday at age 87.

In particular, Mattingly remembers Sterling’s famous home-run calls.

“I always think, ‘A-bomb by A-Rod,’” Mattingly said. “Stuff like that. Good memories of John. Good guy.”

Third-string catcher Garrett Stubbs started behind the plate because the Phillies wanted to pair him with Aaron Nola, who gave up 11 runs in nine innings over his previous two starts. … The Phillies are flying home after the game. Cristopher Sánchez (2-2, 2.90 ERA) is scheduled to start at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday against Athletics righty Luis Severino (2-2, 4.46).

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Hunter Pence's 368-day stint with the Phillies was a study in extremes. Acquired at the trade deadline in 2011 as the missing right-handed bat for a World Series contender, he got dealt a year later by an underachieving team. And with the Phillies in full-on crisis mode this week, Pence sits down with "Phillies Extra," the Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss how quickly a team's fortunes can change. Watch here.

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