Phillies Motivated by Manager Don Mattingly’s Work Returning Team to Fighting Form

Is Don Mattingly in the Philadelphia Phillies long-term plans?

When Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and club general manager Preston Mattingly relieved manager Rob Thomson of his position on April 28, they turned to bench coach Mattingly to try and steer a sinking ball club. With the club off to a dismal start of 9–19, management hit the panic button early in the season. Two days earlier, the Boston Red Sox sacked their field skipper Alex Cora. Patience isn’t a virtue when it comes to success at the MLB level.

The Phillies have been responding positively since the managerial change. It was on April 28 that Mattingly was given the keys to Philadelphia’s dugout. The club closed out in April with three consecutive wins at home, defeating the San Francisco Giants at Citizens Bank Park. As the calendar changes to May, through the first eight days, the Phillies are 5–3.

Leading into Saturday evening’s matchup with the Colorado Rockies, the Phillies are creeping up in the National League East standings. Occupying third place among the five clubs in the division, the change that was needed nearly two weeks ago in leadership appears to have stabilized the loss of games and confidence among the 26-man roster.

With well over 100 games remaining on the 2026 schedule, depending on how the players respond to Mattingly’s way of handling the lineup, the interim tag could be transferred to a full-time, multi-season contract in the fall.

Stepping back into a manager’s role isn’t how Mattingly saw the 2026 season playing out when he was hired in early January.

“My job is really just to be another set of eyes and ears for Thomps,” Mattingly said to MLB.com during his introductory press conference in early January. “Be managing along in the game, try to stay ahead a little bit—I know it gets busy and fast at times when you’ve got a pinch-hit situation and all those things get fast. So, really just try to be another set of eyes, try to stay ahead with him and just try to lighten the load for him.”

When Thomson was replaced by Mattingly, several of the players voiced their appreciation for how much he did for them individually as well as for the community. First baseman Bryce Harper told NBC Sports Philadelphia on the day of Thomson’s firing in April of his appreciation for what he contributed to building up the Phillies.

“He was just steady in here every day,” Harper said. “He was really good for the clubhouse, really good for the team. Everybody knows that he took the job and then was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna do this for a long time,’ and then we started winning. He’s done great things for us. We all had a lot of fun in here, got a lot of great memories.”

Dombrowski didn’t have to look far for Thomson’s replacement. After a 14-year MLB career many believe was a borderline Hall of Fame career, and managing the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins, a more experienced, and well-respected candidate couldn’t have been dropped on the Phillies lap. After completing a three-year run in 2025 as the Toronto Blue Jays’ bench coach, including coming off a dramatic Game 7 of last season’s World Series with the Dodgers, Mattingly appeared to go home and wait for a next offer from a club who had the personnel to contend for October baseball.

Being hired by his son Preston, who is in his second season as the Phillies general manager, is a first in MLB history. They are the first father-son, manager-general manager combination on the big league level. Dombrowski told MLB.com in January after Don Mattingly’s hiring as bench coach that he couldn’t see any potential conflict with dad and son being able to keep their responsibilities in check with those who they answer to.

“I’m not worried about anything coming from the clubhouse up to us that shouldn’t,” Dombrowski said in January. “That is not a concern. I think you also have to be cognizant of the people that you’re talking about and the credibility that they have.  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.”

With the 2026 MLB All-Star Game set for Citizens Bank Park on July 14, pitching ace Zack Wheeler returning to the starting rotation since being sidelined last August with thoracic outlet decompression surgery to his upper right extremity, slugger Kyle Schwarber re-signed for five-years, remaining in the designated hitter role, Adolis Garcia signed in the offseason on a one-year deal looking to get back to his All-Star 2023 form, and having two-time batting champ Trea Turner in the lineup daily, plus the steady, productive play out of future Hall of Famer Bryce Harper, Mattingly’s job could only garner greater rewards as the season progresses.

So far, Mattingly is proving to be the right selection by Dombrowski and the club’s general manager to have stopped the proverbial bleeding popping up in the Phillies’ box scores. Depending on the outcome of the season, aside from what other managers may be available for the picking, Mattingly’s pedigree is too profound to not even give serious consideration to 2027 and beyond.