PHILADELPHIA -- When the Phillies announced that Don Mattingly would be their new bench coach, the words were measured. But the subtext — the whisper around the game — was anything but quiet.
The question most baseball people were asking wasn’t if Mattingly would join Rob Thomson’s staff. It was what this means for the future of the managerial chair in Philadelphia.
“I’m so excited to have Donnie,” Thomson said, with a level of enthusiasm most managers reserve for first-place rallies. “It’s interesting, because … Dave and I have been talking about hiring a guy like Donnie with that type of pedigree. … He’s been there and he’s done all these things and the rest of us really can’t answer to that.”
That pedigree is real. Mattingly, at 64, has spent 22 straight seasons on big-league staffs, including three as bench coach with the Toronto Blue Jays. Before that, he managed the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins for a dozen seasons — a résumé few bench coaches in the game can match.
But if the hiring lit up front offices around baseball, it wasn’t just because of experience. It was because of expectation.
For months, whispered speculation in league circles was that if the Phillies were going to bring someone like Mattingly into their dugout, it wouldn’t just be for today. It would be about tomorrow — lining up a future skipper to succeed Thomson once his chapter in Philadelphia eventually wound down. His current deal runs through the 2027 season.
That made sense at the time. Mattingly checks every box teams have historically looked for in managerial candidates: high-level playing résumé, extensive coaching and managing experience, and respect across the sport.
But Mattingly himself was quick to push back on that narrative as soon as he took the Zoom call with reporters.
“I don’t,” he said without hesitation when asked if he has any desire to manage again. “The managing days for me … I’m 64 getting ready to turn 65 … I see the energy it takes to deal with the media twice a day … to have the conversations with players … it just never really stops. … The managing side for me, I feel like those days have passed me by … But I’ve committed to a couple of years with Thoms, and then just go from there.”
There it was: a rare public denial of the heir-apparent framing. Mattingly’s words weren’t evasive. They were deliberate. He acknowledged the intensity of managing — the grind, the travel, the unending responsibility — and made it clear that at this stage of life he’s choosing support, not stewardship.
That complicates the easy story.
For years, Phillies leadership has placed a premium on coaching experience. When president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke at the Winter Meetings about the bench coach vacancy, he explicitly said the club wanted someone who had been the boss before. Mattingly’s name instantly jumped to the top of that list.
And yet, in his introductory remarks, Mattingly undercut the simplest version of what many assumed would come next.
The optics still matter, though. Managers around the sport know that a bench coach with a resume like his can be both a second brain and a stabilizing force — precisely what a club with championship ambitions wants beside its skipper. That’s the piece Thomson was emphasizing when he talked about Mattingly’s “knowledge” and “integrity.”
Mattingly echoed that respect when he spoke about Thomson, describing their shared Yankees background and noting how well organized and respected Thomson was even in those early days. “The years working with Thoms, I mean, unbelievable … I respect people that have worked their way through and done a lot of different jobs.”
Here’s where the tension lies: Mattingly doesn’t sound like someone eyeing a throne, but the Phillies sound like an organization that wants bench depth behind Thomson — not just as insurance, but as reinforcement.
And in baseball, hiring someone with Mattingly’s managerial chops inevitably raises the question of continuity — whether or not anyone ever says it out loud.
This isn’t a transition plan, at least not right now. Thomson is under contract through the 2027 season, and the Phillies brass has made it clear they want him leading this club today.
But leadership succession — and the contingency planning that comes with it — is a sport unto itself. And the moment you bring someone like Don Mattingly into your dugout, people start thinking about pipelines, future benches, and what “next” might look like.
For now, though, the job is clear and present: support Thomson, deepen the bench, bring that experience into every conversation and every inning of the 2026 season.
Mattingly’s hiring isn’t a coup. It’s reinforcement. And as the Phillies push toward another October run, that might matter just as much as prediction.
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