On Wednesday morning, the Philadelphia Phillies announced they’ve given Don Mattingly a two-year deal for him to manage the team in 2027 and 2028. The Phillies reportedly tried to hire Alex Cora to be their manager at two different points this year.
Mattingly was named the interim manager in April after the struggling Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson. Mattingly led the Phillies to an overall 79-55 record after being named interim manager, but oversaw an almost brutal final week collapse that was mostly saved by the Arizona Diamondbacks running out of healthy starters.
In the final week of the season, Mattingly made multiple questionable moves that certainly lessened the teams chances of holding onto their Wild Card spot.
Once in the playoffs, the Phillies lost in the Wild Card round to the Braves in three games.
Despite their overall strong record of 88-64 for the season, the Phillies seem to feast mostly on bad teams as they finished with a 31-38 record against teams better than .500.
Mattingly previously managed the Marlins and the Dodgers. He has an overall .491 winning percentage as a major league manager spanning parts of 13 seasons.
