Don Mattingly Told the Phillies He Wants the Manager Job Long-Term

When the Phillies fired Rob Thomson earlier this season and handed the reins to Don Mattingly on an interim basis, it felt like a temporary fix. A respected baseball lifer holding things together until the front office could make a real hire in the offseason. But apparently, Mattingly has different ideas about how this story should end.

ESPN’s Buster Olney reported before Wednesday’s game against the Reds that Mattingly was asked directly how he’d feel if Philadelphia approached him about managing beyond this year. His answer was straightforward. He wants the job. He’s working with an interim tag right now but made clear it depends on what president of baseball operations David Dombrowski decides to do.

That’s not exactly a guy hedging his bets. That’s a guy who’s tasted running a team again and doesn’t want to give it up.

Mattingly has done solid work since taking over. The Phillies started the 2026 season looking lifeless, buried under expectations and a sluggish record. Now they’re just two games back of the Braves in the NL East. That’s a real turnaround, even if there’s still a lot of baseball left. The clubhouse clearly responds to him. The results are there on the scoreboard.

The Alex Cora Factor Isn’t Going Away

You can’t talk about the Phillies managerial situation without mentioning Alex Cora. The former Red Sox manager became available after Boston fired him earlier this season, and his name got linked to Philadelphia almost immediately. Reports say Cora actually turned down the job when approached. But the rumors haven’t stopped. There’s still chatter that the Phillies might circle back to him in the offseason.

That puts Mattingly in an awkward spot. He’s doing everything right. Winning games. Getting buy-in from players. Being professional about the temporary nature of his role. And yet the organization might still look elsewhere.

It would be a weird look to let a guy pull your season out of the gutter and then hand the job to someone else. But front offices make weirder decisions than that all the time.

The Phillies could still interview other candidates after the season. That’s standard process for any team with an interim situation. But Mattingly has made his case on the field. He’s made it publicly now too. He wants this to be his team beyond 2026.

For now, he keeps managing like someone who has nothing to lose. Which, honestly, might be exactly what this Phillies team needed all along.