PHILADELPHIA -- Rob Thomson’s new right-hand man has decades of experience playing, coaching and managing in the big leagues.
The Phillies announced on Monday that Don Mattingly, 64, has been hired as bench coach.
Mattingly’s name first surfaced as a candidate in early November, after the Phillies announced in October that former bench coach Mike Calitri would be moved into a new role as Major League field coordinator. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that they wanted somebody with managerial experience. He confirmed at last month’s Winter Meetings that they planned to hire Mattingly.
“My job is really just to be another set of eyes and ears for Thomps,” Mattingly said. “Be managing along in the game, try to stay ahead a little bit -- I know it gets busy and fast at times when you’re thinking about your pitching, then 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.”
The Phillies had been waiting only for Mattingly’s contract to expire with the Blue Jays -- he had been Toronto’s bench coach the past three years -- to make it official.
Mattingly not only had a Hall of Fame-quality playing career with the Yankees, but he has extensive managerial and coaching experience. It should bring a new level of clubhouse credibility to the Phillies’ coaching staff.
“Dave and I have been talking about hiring a guy like Donnie with that type of pedigree,” Thomson said. “Because as great as our staff is, we don’t have that guy who’s been a star in the big leagues.”
Mattingly managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from '16-22. Besides his time coaching in Toronto, he coached under former Yankees and Dodgers manager Joe Torre from 2004-10.
Mattingly said on Monday that he had expected to call it a career after last season before changing his mind. That said, he did express that his managing days are behind him.
"I don’t think I have the energy for that anymore, he said. " … The managing side, for me, I feel like those days have passed me by. So I don’t have any aspirations to manage again."
Mattingly and Thomson know each other from their time together in the Yankees’ organization.
“When it came to me that there was a possibility that Donnie was going to be available, I said, ‘This is the perfect guy,’” Thomson said. “Because I know him, I know the integrity, I know the knowledge, I know how detailed he is. Plus, I think he’s a great sounding board for our players and our stars, because he’s been there and he’s done all these things.
“This is a huge deal. I’m so excited to have Donnie. So excited.”
Mattingly’s son is current Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly. Dombrowski last month addressed the fact that the father-son combo could be a potential issue in the clubhouse, if players felt there was a direct line of communication from the clubhouse to the front office.
“I'm not worried about anything coming from the clubhouse up to us that shouldn't,” Dombrowski said. “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.”
Regardless, the Phillies’ new bench coach doesn’t plan to simply take that for granted.
“I’m very protective of the locker room relationship. With players, they have to be able to trust that I’m not a voice that’s just running upstairs and talking about anything and everything,” Don Mattingly said. “That’s just not the way I operate. I came from a different era where that is not something that happens. I’m going to have to build that trust with players so that they’ll trust me that that’s not going to happen.”
Thomson took heat for in-game decisions in the 2025 NLDS against the Dodgers. That may have factored into the Phillies making a change at bench coach, though Dombrowski first pushed for a change following the 2024 postseason.
“We share a common goal with everybody in the organization,” Preston Mattingly said. “We want to win a world championship. I think he fits our roster really well, and our staff. I’m excited.”
That desire to win a championship certainly resonates with the elder Mattingly, who -- despite nearly four decades as a player, coach or manager -- comes to Philadelphia in search of his first World Series title.
“There’s going to be one team that wins it all, and everybody else is going to have a crash landing at some point,” Mattingly said. “Hopefully, we don’t have a crash landing, and we’re able to be the team that wins our last game.”