The Phillies did not pick Don Mattingly out of a crowded field. They got to him after the field emptied.
Jayson Stark of The Athletic reported Thursday that Philadelphia asked the Dodgers for permission to interview Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez, and that both men declined.
“Both politely declined, those sources said,” Stark wrote.
How the Search Collapsed
Alex Cora was the frontrunner from the start because of his history with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. Dombrowski offered Cora the job on April 26, two days before Rob Thomson was fired, and Cora declined. Cora turned it down a second time in early October, telling the Phillies he has no plans to manage in 2027.
That reopened the search. Dombrowski went to Utley, 47, now a special assistant to Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. Utley said no quickly.
“That commitment is not really realistic at the moment,” Utley told The Athletic. “I’m completely happy with how things are going currently.”
Ibanez, the Dodgers’ vice president of baseball development and special projects, took longer. Stark reported he was intrigued enough by the interest that he took a couple of days to think about it before calling Dombrowski to say he was staying in Los Angeles.
Philadelphia announced Mattingly as full-time manager Wednesday morning, removing the interim tag. The deal covers 2027 and 2028. Dollar figures were not reported.
Mattingly Earned It Anyway
Here is the thing about being the fallback. Mattingly’s results were better than anyone else’s available.
Thomson was fired on April 28 with the Phillies 9-19, the worst record in baseball at the time. Under Mattingly they went 79-55, the fourth-best record in the majors over that span. Philadelphia finished 85-69, second in the NL East, five games behind Atlanta, and reached the playoffs as the third NL wild card for a fifth straight postseason appearance.
Atlanta then eliminated them two games to one in the wild card series.
Mattingly has 13 seasons as a manager with the Dodgers and Marlins and a career record of 968-1,005. He won NL Manager of the Year in 2020 with Miami. He continues to work under his son, general manager Preston Mattingly, who has held the job since 2025.
The Clubhouse Wanted Him
That part has been public for a week. Philadelphia’s players pushed for Mattingly to keep the job, and a 79-55 stretch is the sort of thing that buys that kind of support.
It also makes the Utley and Ibanez outreach look worse in hindsight. Dombrowski spent the weeks after the season asking two men who had never managed a professional game whether they wanted a job his incumbent had already done well. Both said no, and the incumbent got a two-year deal.
The Staff Is Changing Around Him
The Phillies are reportedly parting ways with hitting coach Kevin Long and infield coach Bobby Dickerson. That is the actual signal about what Dombrowski thinks went wrong in 2026, and it points at the offense rather than the dugout.
Mattingly now gets a full season with his own staff and a roster Bryce Harper has already said will look different. Dombrowski was scheduled to hold his end-of-season press conference Thursday morning, which is where the rest of the plan gets explained.
Two years is not a long leash in Philadelphia. Mattingly has already proven he can win 79 games out of 134. The question is whether he can do it from April.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.