How Don Mattingly is beginning to put his stamp on Phillies originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Coming up with a ton of differences between former Phillies manager Rob Thomson and Don Mattingly might be a challenge.
They come from similar baseball roots. They combined for nearly a half-century in the Yankees’ organization. They crossed paths on Joe Torre’s staff in 2007. And like Torre, they are even-keeled guys, and neither is prone to theatrics.
But as Phillies interim manager, Mattingly has already hinted at a few tweaks. And if you looked on the field before Wednesday’s postponed game, you could see one of them.
Bunting.
It was another day the Phillies worked on bunting, and both of those sessions have come in the all-new Mattingly Era.
That does not mean the Phillies are suddenly going to bunt all over the place once the umpire says play ball. But it does show the type of fundamentals Mattingly, and the rest of the coaching staff, believes can help them climb out of a 10-19 start.
“Bunting really is going to be part of the process,” Mattingly said. “We’ve already done it — this is the second time this season. It’s making that a regular thing.”
That does not mean longer or harder pregame work every day.
“I don’t think we’re doing extreme amounts or anything,” Mattingly said. “If a guy’s beat up or tired, you don’t have to take ground balls. I’d rather have quality work than just work.”
Mattingly understands the value of routine. He is a former MVP, six-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glove winner and Manager of the Year. He’s qualified for just about any role in a major league organization.
That background gives Mattingly a unique voice in the Phillies’ clubhouse. Thomson had plenty of perspective after 42 years in baseball, but Mattingly brings a different style.
“I feel like I’m authentic in what I do,” Mattingly said. “Nothing really changes who I am and what I believe in. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to get better and evolve with the game. But I’ve got to be myself and do it.”
That shows up in how he thinks about the lineup.
There are a number of Phillies position players who do not exactly carry the “everyday” tag, including Brandon Marsh. The 28-year-old has been a bright spot, batting .298 with a .788 OPS in the heart of the order. More recently, he has also found more success against left-handed pitching, which has long been a challenge for him.
That has made him harder to sit.
“Brandon is having great at-bats, and he’s having them against everybody,” Mattingly said. “So basically he pushes you to play me, right?”
Matchups matter to Mattingly, but so does rhythm — similar to Thomson.
“We still want to use our guys, but we can’t just have guys sitting here all the time and never play and expect them to be OK when they do play,” he said. “That being said, I want to try to put our best lineup out there that gives us the best chance to win.”
Now managing his third team and coaching in his fifth organization, Mattingly has worked in different environments and seen how clubs use information to build lineups. He is not dismissive of that. He also wants a lineup that can stress the opposing dugout.
“What you really want is your best nine,” Mattingly said. “You can kind of put them in any order and it changes the run value so slightly over the course of the year.”
The larger point is avoiding a lineup that makes bullpen decisions too easy for the opponent.
“If you put all — let’s say our lefties are our best guys and we put five in a row up there — we’re just begging you to bring lefties in that spot,” Mattingly said. “So you try to set the lineup up in a way that puts a little pressure on the other manager.”
Through his managerial experience, Mattingly has also had time to reflect on what he would handle differently. One lesson came from his time in Miami.
“I should have included my staff more, made those guys more inclusive,” Mattingly said. “I didn’t do that as much as I should have. That’s not a mistake I want to make again.”
Mattingly played in a much different era, but he made clear that he does not ignore the numbers.
“If I’m going to sit here and go, ‘Oh hey, I don’t believe in the numbers, all that analytics stuff,’ that’s just crazy thinking,” Mattingly said. “That tells you that you’re not growing and you’re not evolving.
“That doesn’t mean that I go away from things that I believe in also about playing solid baseball. I hope I’m a blend of understanding how to use the information.”
With Thomson gone and Mattingly, who joined the organization in January, moving over from the bench coach role, he is still learning parts of the Phillies’ staff. The group also went through some shuffling Tuesday, with Dusty Wathan moving from third-base coach into the dugout and Anthony Contreras taking over at third.
The early dialogue has given Mattingly comfort.
“For me, from the standpoint of Dusty, we’ve had really good baseball conversations through spring, in the season,” Mattingly said. “I watch how he works, how he prepares. He’s managed a lot in the minor leagues, so I know he’s been there.”
Communication will be central, especially with the bullpen. When the Phillies originally hired Mattingly, part of the idea was to aid in-game decisions. Now he is making them, and that starts before first pitch.
“You meet before the game, you kind of go through your pockets,” he said. “You have some kind of semi-plan. You kind of know who you want to go to in certain pockets of their lineup.”
Mattingly also knows what it is like to be down and out. He pointed to the 2013 Dodgers, a club that was 9 1/2 games out in the NL West on June 22 and ended the season 11 games up in first place. That brought out a runner’s analogy he used to explain how he views any campaign.
“This is a long season,” Mattingly said. “It’s marathon-ish, from the standpoint of the length of it. But those marathoners aren’t running six-minute miles. They’re getting up to speed and they’re keeping their pace.”
The Phillies are not there yet. Mattingly is trying to keep them from chasing too much at once.
“I don’t want panic coming from the coaching staff or myself,” he said. “I want them to feel like we trust them. We know they’re going to get better.”
His approach remains narrow. Game by game.
“I think about winning every night,” Mattingly said. “Honestly, that’s my approach, because we can win every night. And there’s no reason we shouldn’t think in terms that we win every day.”
That does not mean he’s ignoring what has gone wrong this season. And Mattingly is not claiming one bunt drill, one lineup tweak or one staff meeting will solve everything. He is trying to push the Phillies back toward the version of themselves they still believe is in there.
“Hopefully, what’s visible is our baseball is better,” Mattingly said. “That’s really what we’re after.”
