Why the Phillies aren't ready to give Don Mattingly the permanent manager job -- at least not yet

The other two interim managers -- Andy Green of the Mets and Chad Tracy of the Red Sox -- were awarded permanent jobs on Tuesday

Sep 23, 2026 at 10:12 am ET • 1 min read

The Philadelphia Phillies still don't know who their manager will be for the 2027 season and beyond. That's seemingly a bit of a curiosity, as the team is almost certainly headed to the postseason for a fifth straight year. 

As well, they're in such a position thanks to the sustained surge the team has enjoyed under interim manager Don Mattingly. After a 9-19 start to the season, the Phillies sacked long-time manager Rob Thomson in late April, and the 65-year-old Mattingly was elevated to fill the role, albeit only after the Phillies approached the recently deposed Alex Cora about the job. At this writing, the Phillies have gone 78-51 under Mattingly. While obviously all or even most of that can't be attributed to the manager, that kind of success would seem to be enough to earn Mattingly the permanent gig. Thus far, though, that hasn't been the case. 

"[We] have felt it is better to wait until our season is complete," Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told the Philadelphia Inquirer of making any decisions on 2027 on Tuesday, the same day the Mets and Red Sox both removed the "interim" tags from Andy Green and Chad Tracy, respectively, and made them permanent hires.

Mattingly has previously stated that he's interested in the permanent job. 

Much may depend upon how far Mattingly guides the Phillies in the postseason, assuming, of course, they don't completely collapse over the final days of the regular season. Then there's the matter of Cora, who managed under Dombrowski when the pair was with the Red Sox. The Red Sox parted ways with Cora mere days before the Phillies moved on from Thomson, and Dombrowski plainly has eyes for him as the Phillies' permanent manager. 

The expectation is that Cora will seek a return to the managerial ranks after the current season, but Mattingly can in some senses force Dombrowski's hand if the Phillies are, say, one of the last two teams standing in October. 

Mattingly is in his 13th season as an MLB manager, having previously completed stints with the Dodgers and Marlins. Overall, he's 967-1,001 as a manager with four postseason appearances. Mattingly won National League Manager of the Year honors for the abbreviated 2020 season.