In the “City of Brotherly Love,” it’s a family affair — with a twist. Hired as bench coach for the Philadelphia Phillies, Don Mattingly is working for his son, Preston, the club’s general manager.
“He is my boss,” says Don, a Reitz Memorial High School graduate who spent the past three seasons as the Toronto Blue Jays’ bench coach. “It is different for me and would be different for anybody. The way the game has changed has made it easier. Ten or 15 years ago, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Preston calls the situation “unique.”
“When you peel back the layers for myself and Dad and the Phillies organization, we share a big goal, which is the World Series,” he says. “I think it’s a great fit.”
Philadelphia, a National League East club, last advanced to the World Series in 2022, losing to the Houston, Texas, Astros in six games. Last season, the Blue Jays fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers — a team Don managed in 2011-15 — in seven games in the elder Mattingly’s first career trip to the World Series after more than four decades in professional baseball.
Don 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,” he says.
Preston says Phillies players don’t have to worry about Don 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. “We’ll be around the guys on Feb. 10 (for spring training) and hopefully into October and November. I’m not that concerned.”
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 Single-A level. 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 serving three years as a manager of scouting for the Padres of San Diego, California. Preston was named the Phillies’ GM in 2024. “His journey led him here,” Don says, noting that Preston’s visits to the Yankees locker room 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.”
The younger Mattingly would like nothing more than to help guide Philadelphia back to the World Series, with his father on the bench — but he says the two-time defending champion Dodgers could be standing in their way. “I feel real good about our team,” he says. “We’re capable of winning it all. We have a great organization. Hopefully it will happen this year.” Father and son also collaborate at Mattingly Charities, a youth sports-focused nonprofit that Don established in 2007 and has co-run with his wife, Lori, since their wedding in 2010. Preston joined the charity’s board of directors in 2025.
The World Series Through A Child’s Eyes
Pandemonium reigned on the artificial turf of Rogers Centre in October after the Blue Jays eliminated the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in Game 7 of the 2025 American League Championship Series. But Don and Lori were overjoyed seeing the wonder dancing in the eyes of their 11-year-old son, Louie. Mattingly, serving as Toronto manager John Schneider’s right-hand man, finally participated in a World Series after what MLB.com writer Sweeny Murti counted as 5,231 games as a MLB player, coach, and manager. Despite the Blue Jays’ eventual loss to the Dodgers, the Mattinglys call the experience unforgettable.
“It was awesome. It was quite a ride,” Don recalls. “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.”
Because of off days after Toronto hosted the first two games of each series, Louie had the opportunity to get on the field at Yankee Stadium in New York; T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington; and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. “Honestly, he loved it. There were some other guys around his age who were on the field, and he got into it,” Don says. Although the Dodgers are a juggernaut, Mattingly 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, Mattingly’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.
Mattingly 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 46-year-old Blue Jays manager, recalls tacking his future bench coach’s iconic “Hit Man” poster on his bedroom wall as a kid.
After 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 was a coach for the Yankees from 2004-07 and the Dodgers from 2008-10 before landing the job as the Dodgers’ manager from 2011-15. While managing the Miami Marlins from 2016-22, he earned NL Manager of the Year honors in 2020 as the Marlins earned their first playoff berth since winning the 2003 Fall Classic. After parting ways with Miami, Don spent three seasons as the Blue Jays’ bench coach.
New York retired Don’s 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 mark that as a coach for the Phillies. “Philadelphia is a great club with a great fan base,” he says. “(Phillies President of Baseball Operations) Dave Dombrowski is an outstanding baseball guy.”
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 (to Evansville), 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. He wanted to continue on.”
Don, of course, was the main decision-maker. Aside from Preston serving as the Phillies’ GM, Don also is well-acquainted with Phillies Manager Rob Thomson: They were members of Torre’s Yankees coaching staff.
Regarding Louie, his youngest of four sons, Don says MLB has come a long way regarding family, letting youngsters hang around the ballpark more often in recent years. “I wanted to make sure I could spend as much time with him as possible,” Don says. But he didn’t want to manage again.
“It is a lot because you don’t really have an offseason,” says Don, who turns 65 on April 20. “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 like my role (as a coach). I’m more of a teacher. I’ll help any way I can.”
Before passing away in 2014 at age 83, longtime MLB player and manager Don Zimmer once famously boasted that he never received a paycheck that wasn’t from professional baseball. Don Mattingly can say the same thing. “I look at it as I am just grateful,” he says. “I’ve been in the game about 45 years, with a couple of years off. You don’t always get the opportunity to stay in the game. It has taken care of me. I’ll always be grateful for what the game has given me.”
