CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Growing up as the son of a big league All-Star, Preston Mattingly had dreams of following in his famous father’s footsteps.
A first-round pick of the Dodgers in 2006, Mattingly began his pro career at the age of 18 -- the same age his father, Don, made his pro debut back in 1979.
The similarities ended there.
The younger Mattingly -- who has been the Phillies’ general manager since November 2024 -- struggled through five seasons in the Dodgers’ system, never advancing above High-A. He was traded to Cleveland and released, signing back with Los Angeles before being released again a year later. He signed with the Yankees in January 2012 but was released before the season, prompting him to hang up his spikes and consider what was next.
“When you're hitting .180 in A-ball, you probably start to think, ‘Maybe I should start scouting,’” Mattingly said with a smile. “When you’re in the moment, you always think, ‘I can make the adjustment, I can get better and keep working.’ After you get released by the third team, you kind of see the writing on the wall. Maybe it was time to pursue other opportunities.”
Even as he was trying to forge his own path as a player, Mattingly would often take note of the way his most successful teammates went about their business. Playing with the likes of Clayton Kershaw and Carlos Santana, Mattingly knew which players were destined for big league success.
“You start to have a better understanding of what it looks like,” Mattingly said.
Although he could have immediately pursued a scouting career after his playing days were over, Mattingly said he “never wanted to leave my career to someone having to take a chance on me because I didn’t have a degree.” He went to Lamar University, where he had the bonus of playing Division I basketball despite being a 26-year-old freshman.
“Once you get out of team sports, you start to crave the competitive feeling and being with a team,” Mattingly said. “There's just nothing better than winning with a group, so when I got the opportunity to go back and play basketball, that was one of my main focuses.”
After graduating in 2016 with a degree in corporate communications and business, Mattingly went to Florida to spend some time with his father, who was in his first season managing the Marlins. His dream of playing in the Majors was over, but his passion for baseball hadn’t waned.
When Padres senior advisor and director of player personnel Logan White -- who had drafted Mattingly as the Dodgers’ scouting director at the time -- called him during Spring Training to inquire about a potential job opportunity, Mattingly was on the next plane to Arizona.
A few weeks went by without a word, the job seemingly no longer a realistic option. When he got the call from general manager A.J. Preller offering him a position in the baseball operations department, Mattingly’s new career was officially underway.
“It happened fast,” said Don Mattingly, who joined the Phillies this season as the club’s bench coach. “I remember he told me, ‘I don't care what they want me to do, I'll do anything,’ when he was first trying to get in. I told him, ‘Once you get in, they start to see who you are.’”
Preller gave Mattingly the opportunity to see behind the curtain. From scouting meetings to the Trade Deadline war room to managerial interviews, Mattingly got a firsthand view of what goes into running an organization.
“I was probably this kid who thought he had everything figured out and had nothing figured out. A.J. took a chance on me,” Mattingly said. “He allowed me to be in a lot of things as a young kid that I probably shouldn't have been in based on my experience. I got to learn how he ran a room, how he dealt with scouts, how he dealt with coaches, how he dealt with front-office members. A lot of it was him allowing me to be in the room and just observe.”
Mattingly spent five years with the Padres, first with the pro scouting department before moving into advance scouting and game planning. Learning from people like Preller, White and Chuck LaMar, Mattingly was getting his graduate degree in baseball management.
“You don't get where you're going -- anybody in life -- unless you have great people around you,” Mattingly said. “Mentors [who] want to put their arm around you and help you when you're doing something right, and then when you're not, help you learn along the way.”
“He learned and listened,” Don said. “A.J. gave him a lot of access, so he got to see a lot. It gave him a well-rounded view of how an organization works.”
Toward the end of the 2021 season, the Phillies lured Mattingly to the East Coast to become their director of player development, giving him the chance to run an entire farm system.
“It was a really tough one because of my relationship with A.J. and their group over there,” Mattingly said. “I have a huge passion for players and development. This was a path for me to kind of carve my own way and get into a development system.”
It didn’t take long for Mattingly to appreciate the demands and difficulties that came with the farm director job. Not wanting to have a cookie-cutter approach to the system, the Phillies put together an individualized plan for all 165 players, a daunting task to say the least. Then there was dealing with a staff of more than 100 people, all of whom played important roles in the development of the organization’s players.
“You need to have an understanding in the organization of what you want to do, then hire people who fit that,” Mattingly said. “You can't be there at all times, so it's hiring a ton of leadership that knows the environment you want to create. That, to me, is the key. Players play better when they're in better environments; that’s what we talk about all the time in our system. I think if you create a great environment, players get to their potential more frequently."
Mattingly was promoted to assistant GM after the 2023 season, giving him an opportunity to work closely with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and GM Sam Fuld. A year later, with Fuld preparing for a move to the business side of the organization, Mattingly was promoted again, this time to GM.
All the listening and learning helped prepare Mattingly for this latest job. From Preller, he learned the ins and outs of player evaluation and the importance of creativity. From Dombrowski, it was his organizational skills and preparation for anything that comes his way that has stood out above all else.
Having grown up in the game as the son of a big league star, Mattingly’s experiences in San Diego and Philadelphia have readied him for his current role. But even as he approaches his second decade in his second baseball career, the 38-year-old is wise enough to know what he doesn’t know.
“You're never prepared for any job when you take a step up, so you have to be vulnerable enough to ask questions of people around you,” Mattingly said. “I obviously have a great mentor in Dave and Sam Fuld before, so being willing to ask questions, learn and just admit that I don't have the answer here -- just ask questions. When you don't understand something, you have to be willing to learn on the fly. That's how you grow and get better.”