Sometimes it’s just best to move on.
Best for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Best for Don Mattingly, too.
It’s time for them to find a manager their front office of analytical all-stars can truly embrace. It’s time for him to find a team that truly appreciates what he can do.
Mattingly was sometimes criticized for his in-game strategy, but managers are mostly managers of people, and he has shown an ability to do that well.
It’s time to move on, which is exactly what the Dodgers and Mattingly did Thursday. He and the organization agreed to part ways, a mutual decision first reported by Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com and later confirmed by sources.
Mattingly isn’t a failed manager. Far from it. In five seasons with the Dodgers, he proved adept at the most important part of the job, dealing with often-difficult personalities. He also won more regular-season games than San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy (446-428).
No, he didn’t win a championship (while Bochy won his second and third with the Giants). You can argue whether that was because of his mistakes or because of the ultimately flawed roster he was handed—I’m going with the flawed roster—but it’s absolutely true that he never won it all.
Maybe he will at the next stop, just as his mentor, Joe Torre, finally won big when he landed with the New York Yankees.
Mattingly will end up somewhere, possibly soon. According to sources, he’s interested in the Washington Nationals, but is more likely to end up with the Miami Marlins, who have been clear about their interest in him.
The Marlins and owner Jeffrey Loria are hardly a model of stability, but Loria badly wants Mattingly, and may even offer him some input in decision-making.
That’s as opposed to what happened this season with the Dodgers, where it wasn’t even clear how much input Mattingly had in his own lineup. When he answered every lineup question with some version of “We thought it gave us the best chance of winning,” there was always a suspicion that “we” didn’t always include the manager.
The Dodgers can say what they want about how much they loved Mattingly. He’s a nice guy. Most people who meet him come away loving him.
He’s a nice guy, but he was never their nice guy. Mattingly was hired by former general manager Ned Colletti, who always believed in him. Andrew Friedman and his numbers guys simply inherited him.
Truth be told, the parting of ways probably should have happened last winter, when Friedman could have pursued Joe Maddon, who worked so well with him with the Tampa Bay Rays. Instead, the Dodgers kept Mattingly, who was said to have had a close relationship with owner Mark Walter.
The decision to keep him didn’t stop the talk that Mattingly was a short-timer in L.A. In Southern California and elsewhere, the belief was Mattingly would be a goner unless the Dodgers advanced deep into the postseason, that maybe he needed a World Series appearance to save his job.
Instead, the Dodgers had another first-round exit, losing in five games to the New York Mets. And while there was talk Mattingly could still survive—ESPN.com‘s Ramona Shelburne said the Dodgers offered him some sort of extension, although Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times said on Twitter an extension was discussed in principle but never offered—eventually both sides agreed on a divorce.
The Dodgers will look for a new manager, with Bob Nightengale of USA Today floating Gabe Kapler as a strong candidate on Twitter. Kapler would be a nice fit, both because of his tight relationship with Friedman and his real interest in analytics.
Mattingly will look for a new job. Miami and Washington look like the best fits, but the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners are also still looking for a manager. The Marlins and Nationals would be more likely to let Mattingly be himself, as both could benefit from a manager who’s able to get more out of their talent.
Mattingly will leave behind a legacy as the first Dodgers manager ever to finish in first place in the NL West three straight years, but also as the seventh consecutive Dodgers manager to leave without ending a World Series drought that now stands at 27 years and counting.
The lack of October success was too much for many Dodgers fans to accept, and ultimately too much for Mattingly to overcome with an organization whose leadership had changed drastically since he was hired to take over for Torre after the 2010 season.
He had a nice run.
This is the right time for it to end.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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