Mattingly to return as Dodgers' manager in '14
Former All-Star first baseman in midst of first postseason appearance as skipper
LOS ANGELES -- Manager Don Mattingly, whose Dodgers are trailing 3-1 in the National League Championship Series, will return in 2014, a baseball source confirmed Tuesday night.
Although the Dodgers do not plan to make a formal announcement, club chairman Mark Walter told CBSSports.com that Mattingly had "done a good job" by getting his club into the second round of the postseason.
Mattingly, 52, an iconic first baseman with the Yankees as a player, came to the Dodgers as a coach for then-manager Joe Torre and was given a three-year contract to manage the Dodgers after Torre stepped aside at the end of the 2010 season.
But Mattingly's future had been in somewhat in doubt ever since the end of last season when the club declined his request to have a 2014 option picked up.
This is the first year the Dodgers reached the postseason under Mattingly, whose only previous managing experience was one stint in the Arizona Fall League.
There were intense rumors of Mattingly's imminent firing in May when the Dodgers and their $230 million payroll were in last place. But he also was at the helm when the club put on the greatest in-season comeback in franchise history, winning 42 of 50 games at one point and going from last to runaway winners of the NL West.
The Dodgers then beat the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series, with Mattingly bringing back ace Clayton Kershaw on three days' rest to start the clincher.
The Dodgers finished third and second in Mattingly's first two seasons in charge. This year, new owners gave Mattingly an expensive and talented roster.