Don Mattingly ‘carried the stick.’ That helped make him the best choice as Phillies manager.
Nick Castellanos might have hit on something when he threw shade last season at former manager Rob Thomson.
The Phillies finally embraced inevitability.
Don Mattingly will return in 2027 as their manager, the team announced on Wednesday. He’d been promoted from bench coach to interim manager in April, but he was never the team’s first choice.
Which was foolish.
Mattingly was always the only right man for this job.
These Phillies players are a sensitive group who need a firm hand, which is a complicated road to travel. Mattingly did so this season. He was honest with players in his criticisms and his congratulations. He did not protect players who made mistakes. He commanded the clubhouse in a way that had not been done in the Bryce Harper/Zack Wheeler/Trea Turner era.
» READ MORE: Phillies remove interim tag, sign manager Don Mattingly to two-year contract
Indeed, these Phillies seemed to have a greater appreciation for a guy who “carried the stick.”
That’s the condescending phrase Nick Castellanos used on a podcast in September of 2025:
“The only opinions that I honestly care about are (from) the ones that have carried the stick,” Castellanos said, referring to managers and coaches who played in the major leagues. “The ones that have put on the gloves and put on the cleats.”
That did not include his then manager, Rob Thomson, or Thomson’s staff. It was an insubordinate comment from an insubordinate player whom the Phillies released a few months later. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t true for Castellanos, and it doesn’t mean it wasn’t true for his teammates, almost all of whom said they wanted Mattingly to return.
“I liked him a lot,” said Turner.
That’s as ringing an endorsement as Mattingly will get, considering Turner had his worst season as a pro in 2026 and was consistently and candidly reviewed, publicly, by Mattingly.
“I just felt like he was just calm, man. He was easy to talk to. You could talk to him about anything,” Turner said. “He just seemed like a cool guy that wanted to be here.”
But not Mr. Nice Guy.
“If he needed to let you know something was wrong, he’d let you know.”
Marcus Hayes alerts
By the middle of the spring of 2026, Mattingly, 65, had seen it all. He was a six-time All-Star and the face of the Yankees, he’d managed the big-market Dodgers and the small-market Marlins, coached for the Yankees, Dodgers, Marlins, and Phillies, appeared on The Simpsons, and was the victim of a wardrobe malfunction on an episode of Seinfeld.
Steady as a rock, Mattingly went 79-55 after he replaced Thomson 28 games into the 2026 season. Mattingly navigated a tumultuous season, rashes of injuries, and took the Phils back to the playoffs, where they lost in the wild-card round in three games to the Braves.
When Mattingly took over, the atmosphere in the clubhouse changed. The team became less whimsical. More professional.
It felt like the kindly uncle had gone home and a stern father had taken over.
This is meant as no slight to Thomson. As a first-time manager, his first season as an interim in place of fired friend Joe Girardi, Thomson did a magnificent job pushing a star-studded lineup to the playoffs four times in a row. He deserves a second chance, if he wants it: He’d planned to retire from baseball after the 2022 season after serving as Girardi’s bench coach one more time.
This is not meant as a full-throated endorsement of Mattingly, He left the Blue Jays after serving as the bench coach who helped them win the 2025 American League pennant. He wanted to spend more time with his family. However, Matting agreed in January to delay retirement to spend two seasons as the Phillies’ bench coach. It was a position of convenience, since Mattingly’s son, Preston, is the Phillies’ general manager.
This is not meant to imply that Alex Cora could not have done the job. He just would have been a poor fit. The egos of Cora, Harper, Wheeler, and Phillies president Dave Dombrowski might have been too big for the confines of Citizens Bank Park. Maybe Cora knew that when he told Dombrowski for the second time in six months that he didn’t want to manage his baseball team. Cora won the 2017 World Series as the bench coach for the Astros, then won the 2018 World Series in his first season as a manager, with the Red Sox, but he was involved in illegal sign-stealing scandals each of those seasons.
» READ MORE: Murphy: Alex Cora did the smart thing. The Phillies will be fine with Don Mattingly. But, really, who cares?
And this certainly is not meant as a congratulatory bouquet thrown at the feet of Dombrowski. He failed to build a viable bullpen for the fourth straight year, and he failed to acquire a right-handed power bat for the third straight year, but he also botched managing the manager’s job all season.
First, it was unfair of Dombrowski to fire Thomson after the 9-19 start, considering the Phillies’ withering strength of schedule and the fact that both Wheeler and closer Jhoan Duran had been injured during that slow start. Second, it was unprofessional when Dombrowski solicited the services of Cora while Thomson was still managing the team; then reluctantly giving the job to Mattingly. Third, it was in poor taste that Dombrowski let this decision linger for two weeks after the season’s end.
But now it’s over. Dombrowski will meet with the media on Thursday to discuss the past season, the near future, and his new-ish, full-time, major league veteran manager.
The Phillies haven't won a playoff series since 2023, and their postseasons keep getting shorter and shorter. How can they fix it? Radio play-by-play announcer Scott Franzke joins Phillies Extra, The Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss Trea Turner's future, the managerial uncertainty, whether the Phillies can get "creative" to change the mix of the roster, and more. Watch here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Previous episodes: Larry Andersen | Matt Klentak | Jeff Francoeur | Luke Murton | Mike Hazen | Tony Gwynn Jr. | Kevin Stocker | Bobby Dickerson | Jim Bowden | John Middleton
