Don Mattingly has been here before, helping revitalize a talented but struggling franchise. When he managed the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013 and ’14, they were 9 1/2 and 10 games, respectively, out of first place in June. They went on to win the National League West Division title both seasons. Déjà vu, anyone?
With aspirations of advancing to the World Series for the first time since 2022, the Philadelphia Phillies sputtered out of the gate this season with a dismal 9-19 record, and Manager Rob Thomson was fired April 28.
Enter Mattingly. Hired prior to the 2026 season as the Phillies’ bench coach, the 1979 Reitz Memorial High School graduate was named interim manager the same day Thomson was let go. Mattingly already had entered the season in a unique situation by working for his son, Preston, who serves as the club’s general manager. They are believed to be the first father-son manager-general manager combination in Major League Baseball history.
Don may be Preston’s father, but he is well aware Preston is his boss. “It is different for me and would be different for anybody,” Don, who spent the past three seasons as the Toronto Blue Jays’ bench coach, told Evansville Living in January. “The way the game has changed has made it easier. Ten or 15 years ago, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“When you peel back the layers for myself and Dad and the Phillies organization, we share a big goal, which is the World Series,” Preston said in a January interview. “I think it’s a great fit.”
But, the Phillies’ dream of another promising run went up in smoke, at least at the start of the season. When Thomson — who Don knew from when they were members of Joe Torre’s Yankees coaching staff — was dismissed in April, the Phillies trailed the first-place Atlanta Braves by 10 1/2 games in the NL East. According to Baseball Reference’s Kenny Jackelen, Don is the MLB’s lone manager to bring his team from 9 1/2 games out or worse to finish first two years in succession.
Elevating Don may have seemed an unusual choice, at least on the surface: After more than four decades in professional baseball, he had remarked that he didn’t have the energy to manage again. He turned 65 on April 20 but has the full confidence of Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski, who in January Don called “an outstanding baseball guy.” In turn, he had a simple explanation for changing his mind about managing: because Dombrowski asked. Don will serve as the Phillies’ interim manager through the 2026 season.
He says major league front offices have become much more hands-on in day-to-day operations in recent years, creating a comfort zone that wasn’t there before. “I always felt the guys could trust me,” Don says. Preston agrees that Phillies players don’t have to worry about their now-interim manager running upstairs to the front office with clubhouse information, even if the general manager is his own son. “Normally, the front office goes hands-on,” Preston says. “I’m not that concerned.”
Both Mattinglys are in Philadelphia for one reason. “Players are here to win,” Don told reporters April 28 after getting promoted. “Preston’s here to win. Dave’s here to win. I’m sure ownership is here to win, and the fans want to win. It all comes back to what? Better baseball.”
Despite Don’s knack for turning teams around, it won’t be easy. The Phillies’ disastrous start marked their worst 28-game opening since 2002. Dombrowski courted former Boston Red Sox Manager Alex Cora about the possibility of succeeding Thomson, but Cora — barely a day after being cut loose by Boston — declined. Dombrowski then turned to Don.
After the elder Mattingly was announced as the Phillies’ new bench coach in January, Dombrowski told reporters that he wasn’t concerned about anything coming from the clubhouse up to the front office that shouldn’t. “I think you also have to be cognizant of the people that you’re talking about and the credibility that they have,” Dombrowski said. “When you start talking about Don and Preston, you’re talking about two people that have immense credibility, and so there’s nothing that’s going to come down there. Confidentiality is still confidentiality.”
Preston’s Journey to GM
Was it drive, determination, or talent that catapulted Preston to general manager? “All of the above,” Don says.
Dealing with the pressure of being the esteemed retired Yankee’s son, Preston was a first-round draft choice of the Dodgers, the 31st overall selection, out of Central High School in 2006. He stalled at the Class A level, ending his minor league career with a .232 batting average. Undaunted, Preston switched to basketball, where at age 26 he played Division I ball for Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.
Returning to baseball, he worked his way up in management, originally spending five years scouting for the Padres of San Diego, California before joining the Phillies in 2021. He was named Philadelphia’s GM in 2024. “His journey led him here,” Don says, noting that Preston’s visits to the Yankees locker room when his father was a player helped him become comfortable in major league surroundings. “He started at San Diego at the very bottom. He’s come a long way.”
Preston, 38, says his passion and experience helped him grow. “If things don’t go your way, you get back up and dust yourself off,” he says. He came into the top job when analytics are considered more important than what a scout, coach, or manager may see with their own eyes. Preston embraces modern technology, blending that with his gut feeling. “They are pieces to the puzzle,” he says. “We rely on evaluations and instincts. If you don’t (use technology), you fall behind. You want to use as many tools as you can.”
Preston, the second-oldest of Don’s four sons, would like nothing more than to help guide Philadelphia back to the World Series, with his father at the helm. “We have a great organization,” he told Evansville Living in January. “Hopefully it will happen this year.”
Finally, a Trip to the World Series
With his wife, Lori, and their 11-year-old son, Louie, cheering him on, Don finally participated in his first career trip to the World Series in fall 2025 after what MLB.com writer Sweeny Murti counted as 5,231 games as a player, coach, and manager. Despite the Blue Jays’ eventual loss in seven games to the Dodgers — a team Don served as coach from 2008-10 before becoming their manager — he calls the experience unforgettable.
“It was awesome. It was quite a ride,” Don says. “We had a good group of guys, and nothing was easy along the way. They played the same way they had played during the regular season and didn’t want to lose.” Although the Dodgers are a juggernaut, Don says they were beatable. “We outplayed them, honestly,” he says. “The ball didn’t bounce in our favor.”
Don led the Dodgers to three successive NL West Division championships as manager but never advanced to the Series. He guided L.A. to the NLCS in 2013, when they lost to the Saint Louis Cardinals. In his final year as a player, Don’s two-run double gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead over the Mariners in the sixth inning of decisive Game 5 of the 1995 American League Division Series. But Seattle rallied to post a 6-5 victory in 11 innings. Ironically, “Donnie Baseball” hit the final home run of his storied career — a go-ahead solo homer in Game 2 — off fellow Evansville native Andy Benes and finished the series with a .417 batting average. Achingly, the Yankees won the World Series the next season.
Don posted a .307 batting average for the Yankees from 1982-95, was a six-time AL All-Star and a nine-time Gold Glover winner, an AL record for a first baseman. He won the 1984 AL batting title and was the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player. Schneider, the now 45-year-old Blue Jays manager, recalls tacking his future bench coach’s iconic “Hit Man” poster on his bedroom wall as a kid.
Once his playing career was over, Don was Joe Torre’s bench coach in 2004 as the Yanks held a seemingly commanding 3-0 series advantage over the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS, only to lose four in a row. He coached the Yankees from 2004-07 and the Dodgers from 2008-2010 before landing the job as the Dodgers’ manager from 2011-2015. While managing the Miami Marlins from 2016-2022, he earned NL Manager of the Year honors in 2020 as the Marlins earned their first playoff berth since winning the 2003 Fall Classic. Don and Miami parted ways after the 2022 season.
New York retired his No. 23 jersey, making him the lone Yankee with his number retired without having won a World Series with the team. Now, he hopes to check that box with the Phillies.
A Baseball Lifer’s New Chapter
After his contract expired with the Blue Jays in fall 2025, Don thought his days in the dugout might be over. “I knew that was it in Toronto,” says Don, who lives in Evansville each off-season. “I thought it was time to come home, but (Louie) seemed to be having such a good time after going to the World Series that he didn’t want it to be done.”
But Don really didn’t want to manage again. “It is a lot because you don’t really have an offseason,” he told Evansville Living before spring training for the 2026 season. “You have to meet with the media twice a day and deal with the front office and free agency and contracts. I don’t want to say I didn’t have the energy to manage again. It was probably more about drive, if I wanted to do that much. I’m more of a teacher.” But his next words eventually proved prophetic: “I’ll help any way I can.”
As for changing the trajectory of the Phillies’ season, Don’s words during his first Phillies media availability as manager were simple: “You’ve got to turn the page.” The Phillies responded by shutting out the San Francisco Giants that night and winning five of the next six games under their new manager. ⎢
