ThePhillySportsBlog

The Phillies finally lost a series under new manager Don Mattingly, but I still think they can win the World Series this season. 

Coming from someone who predicted that the Phillies would win the World Series before the season, it’s not like I’m going out on a limb here.  I’m also not saying that just because I want to be right (But I certainly don’t want to be wrong).  I honestly think the Phillies are finally playing up to the potential I saw in them before the season. 

Changing a manager is the easiest way to create a spark in a team in any sport, but it is easier in baseball than in other sports.  There is no “scheme” to change in baseball.  It’s simply about the messaging in the clubhouse and managing around the edges. 

Rob Thomson was fired after the Phillies got off to a horrific start to the season.  Frankly, the Phillies looked like the worst team in baseball at 9-19, and the ugly statistics backed up that notion.  But it wasn’t all the manager’s fault. 

Yes, Thomson has made some questionable and downright terrible moves in the past (Pulling Zack Wheeler in the playoffs will always be a head-scratcher), but what really did him in was that the players seemed to stop listening to him.  For a manager who is known as a “players manager”, that was a death blow. 

Bryce Harper even acknowledged that the players seemed to just be waiting for the firing to happen when things were going bad this season.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement from your star player. 

So, in steps Mattingly with his “Donny Baseball” image that President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski hopes will turn around the fortunes of the team.  It worked, but was it really because of Mattingly?  The answer is kinda. 

This isn’t the first time that Dombrowski has replaced his manager mid-season in his time running the Phillies.  Four years ago, he fired manager Joe Girardi after a 22-29 start and replaced him with Thomson.  That team went 14-2 after the manager change and ended up winning the NL pennant, before losing in the World Series.  This year’s team has gone 16-6 (after losing the last 2 to the Reds) since switching managers.  That has raised their record to 25-25. 

A .500 record isn’t something to celebrate, but it’s certainly better than being 10 games under .500, isn’t it? 

There is a common thread in those great records after changing managers though.  Dombrowski isn’t stupid.  The man will absolutely be in the baseball Hall of Fame one day.  What Donbrowski did is time the managerial changes to coincide with soft spots in the schedule.  The Phillies went from playing some of the best teams in baseball, like the Cubs and Dodgers while Thomson was the manager, to playing some of the worst teams in baseball, right after he hired Mattingly.  Smart. 

It also helped that one of the best players in baseball came back from injury right around the same time. 

Getting Zack Wheeler back seems to have stabilized the rotation.  Well, other than Aaron Nola, but that’s an entire article for another day.  Wheeler is 3-0 with a 1.99 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in five starts, after starting the season on the IL.  He and Christopher Sanchez (5-2, 1.82 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) might just be fighting it out for the NL Cy Young award, with Sanchez recently extending his scoreless streak to 29 2/3 innings.  Even Jesus Luzardo and Andrew Painter have looked better in recent outings.   

The starting rotation had a 5.68 ERA before Wheeler’s return on April 25.  Since then, the starting rotation’s ERA is 3.22.  Also, Sanchez, Wheeler and Luzardo have allowed just 3 runs over their last 42 1/3 innings.  That’s a 0.64 ERA over their last two turns through the rotation, with 41 Ks and only 4 walks. 

This team was built around the notion that the starting rotation will carry them.  I’m feeling much better about that these days now that Wheeler is back. 

The bullpen has me a little worried, as guys like Tanner Banks and Orion Kerkering aren’t having the success this season that they had last season, but it’s still relatively early.  The same can be said of free agent signing, Brad Keller who was brought in to be the setup man to Jhoan Duran.  Keller hasn’t been bad (3.92 ERA, 1.18 WHIP in 20 2/3 innings), but he needs to be better. 

The lineup is where Mattingly is really making his presence felt.   

Harper and Kyle Schwarber are having MVP-level seasons on their own, but Harper especially seems to have more respect for Mattingly than he did for Thomson.  That matters in a veteran clubhouse.  If someone of Mattingly’s stature tells the team to work on the fundamentals to improve their terrible defense, they aren’t going to even question it.  Remember when Harper literally laughed at former manager Gabe Kapler’s suggestion that the team use a curveball machine in practice. Harper wouldn’t dare question Mattingly. 

Everyone who wanted the Phillies to blow up the roster last offseason might be surprised to see that Brandon Marsh is hitting .325 this season. He’s even hitting .250 against LHP, which is a monumental improvement on his part.  Oh, and Schwarber is leading the majors with 20 HRs, even after missing the last three games with an illness. 

Heck, even Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm have turned around their seasons recently.  While Mattingly won’t get any credit for Stott, he certainly needs to get credit for Bohm. 

Bohm’s biggest problem has always been between his ears.  He was recently an All Star in 2024, so the talent is there.  But he lets things affect him. Whether it’s his personal life (parents) or his inability to put failures on the field behind him, Bohm needs good coaching. 

When Mattingly took over, he benched Bohm for two straight games and told him to not do anything the first game except just sit there in the dugout and watch.   Bohm was hitting .159 and his .433 OPS was ranked 177^th out of 178 qualified players in MLB when Mattingly sat him on May 7^th and 8^th.  Since he returned to the starting lineup, Bohm is hitting .381 with a 1.245 OPS.  That’s good managing.  It’s also something Thomson would never have done.  He was far too deferential to the players.  (See: Realmuto, JT never resting and Harper, Bryce insisting he bat 3rd)

The Phillies have won 6 of their 7 series with Mattingly as their manager.  It obviously hasn’t all been because of the manager, but I certainly think it was a catalyst for the turnaround.   

Mattingly is much better at managing a pitching staff, since that was an obvious weakness of Thomson.  The players seem to be more relaxed now that Dombrowski made a change to try to save the season.  The Phillies have scored the third most runs in baseball since April 28.  That, combined with the improved pitching, has saved this season. 

Now if Mattingly can somehow resurrect Nola’s career, he would be mentioned as the greatest manager in MLB history, but that might be asking too much.  We would need the Vatican to certify that turnaround as a miracle at this point.   

Sorry, that might be too much for even Saint Donny of Baseball right now.  But if Mattingly somehow gets this team to the playoffs and makes my prediction of a World Series parade down Broad Street a reality, then even his biggest critics will have to give Dombrowski credit for saving this season and all the lost souls of Phillies fans.