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By Ben Watanabe
Contributing Sports Writer
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The Philadelphia Phillies needed a new voice.
For a while, it worked.
Don Mattingly briefly injected new life into the team when he replaced Rob Thomson as manager in April. From a dismal 9-19 start, the Phillies surged back into second place in the NL East, where they've been stuck for the bulk of the season.
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Mattingly no longer appears to be a miracle worker, merely the adequate yet flawed skipper he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins before taking the interim job in Philly this year.
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If many of Mattingly's decisions are maddening, there might be a reason for that: In the end, whatever happens this season might not even impact whether Mattingly returns as manager -- and he knows it.
"The way Mattingly sees this: It doesn't really matter if (Bryce) Harper or anyone likes him," The Athletic's Matt Gelb wrote Thursday. "He might be gone whenever or however this season ends. He was not (president of baseball operations Dave) Dombrowski's first choice for interim manager. He probably won't be Dombrowski's first choice for 2027 manager."
Mattingly's outlook partly explains the odd way in which he injected himself into the Harper-Dombrowski squabble this week. (Another reason is that his son Preston Mattingly is the team's general manager, so he's not exactly objective in a disagreement between the clubhouse and the front office.) If the way he utilizes the bullpen is frustrating and his failure to impose consequences for dumb plays is infuriating, maybe it's because he knows he'll pack his bags and head home the day after the season ends, no matter what.
This is the Mattingly managerial experience in a nutshell. Bringing him in usually goes well for a while. He was an elegant player and comes across as a man who knows what he's doing. Then the strategic cracks start to show and his mien starts to be perceived as vacant rather than noble. Soon, he's gone.
The Phillies appear to be the latest MLB team headed in that direction. The question, will it be too late for this year's team by then?
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