PHILADELPHIA – Don Mattingly made up his mind that 2025 would be his last season in baseball. The 1985 AL MVP and former manager would retire after one final season as a bench coach in Toronto, without or without the World Series ring he's fruitlessly chased since his rookie season with the New York Yankees in 1983.
Mattingly reversed course during a year in which the Blue Jays won the AL pennant because of meaningful talks with his son.
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No, not Preston Mattingly, the Phillies general manager who is now his dad's boss after Donnie Baseball signed a multi-year deal to serve under Rob Thomson as bench coach. Well, at least not entirely — father and son had plenty of conversations about role and responsibilities for the reigning NL East champion Phillies.
Give 11-year-old son Louis Mattingly the bulk of the credit for flipping dad's decision.
“(He) was kind of like, ‘Dad, you can’t stop. You've got to keep going,'” Mattingly said with a laugh. “I was like, oh, I don't know about this. But that kind of helped change it a little bit, because I do worry about him missing school and all that stuff that he does.”
The 64-year-old Mattingly decided he had more to give the game after the Blue Jays lost the World Series in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Mattingly gets to chase that ring working for his son, his friend from their old Yankees days in Thomson and maybe even help Bryce Harper — an MVP and a first baseman like Mattingly — regain his elite form.
Mattingly, who will be spending his 23rd straight season as a major league manager and coach, left his role as Toronto’s bench coach under manager John Schneider after the World Series.
“I felt like my mission going to Toronto was, in a sense, accomplished from the standpoint of just helping a young manager get started, who's really talented, a really good manager," Mattingly said. “I knew that part of my job was going to be finished.”
Mattingly replaced Mike Calitri, who became the Phillies’ major league field coordinator.
“I just think we're adding a great voice, a guy that's had a lot of experience doing this, great pedigree and we're adding really solid, solid guy to a great coaching staff,” Thomson said.
Mattingly managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from 2016-22. He was the 2020 NL Manager of the Year after he led the Marlins to their first playoff appearance since 2003.
He said he no longer had interest in managing again.
“I don't think I have the energy for that anymore,” Mattingly said.
Mattingly played 14 seasons as a first baseman in the major leagues, all for the Yankees, from 1982-95. He was a six-time American League All-Star and the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player before retiring. Mattingly captained the Yankees in his final five seasons. He never reached the playoffs until 1995, when he hit .417 with a homer and six RBIs in the five-game Division Series loss to Seattle.
Mattingly’s production had been diminished by back injuries since at least 1990, and he finished with a .307 career average, 222 homers and 1,099 RBIs. He received only six votes from the contemporary era committee and fell short again in December of making the Hall of Fame.
“I try not to let myself get optimistic,” Mattingly said. “This year, I was a little optimistic. It seemed there was some sort of momentum. I told myself I won't do that again.”
Philadelphia won the NL East for the second straight season and were eliminated by the Dodgers in the NL Division Series. They've reached the playoffs four straight seasons under Thomson — reaching the World Series in 2022 — but have yet to win the franchise's first title since 2008.
The Mattinglys would like to end that streak together.
“To be able to do it with him,” Mattingly said, “would be incredible.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb