Former Marlins Manager Making Return to Miami As Division Rivals Interim Boss
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The Miami Marlins have two games remaining on their six-game Southern California road trip against the Los Angeles Dodgers. After that, they will fly cross-country back to South Florida for a homestand that begins with a visit from the Philadelphia Phillies.
Surprisingly, the Phillies and New York Mets are bringing up the rear in the National League East with identical 9-19 records. They are the two biggest underachievers in MLB so far this season. On Saturday night, the Boston Red Sox made the stunning decision to fire manager Alex Cora. On Tuesday, the Phillies did the same with Rob Thomson after just 28 games. Don Mattingly was named the interim manager for the rest of the season and his second series will be in Miami.
Marlins to Face Former Manager Don Mattingly This Weekend
When Philadelphia general manager Dave Dombrowski made the decision to fire Thomson, he replaced him with Mattingly. There was a report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today that Dombrowski reached out to Cora about replacing Thomson, but declined. Instead, Mattingly was named interim manager for the remainder of the 2026 season.
Mattingly and Philadelphia will host the San Francisco Giants for a three-game series beginning on Tuesday night, then their first road trip will begin on Friday night against the Marlins at loanDepot Park, which is fitting.
For seven seasons, Mattingly was Miami's manager from 2016-22. He compiled a 443-587 record. He won 79 games in his first season of 2016 before winning 77 a year later. Mattingly never won more than 69 games in South Florida the rest of his tenure, which was in 2022 before the team parted ways. Before coming to the Marlins, he went 446-363 over five seasons with the Dodgers, while going 8-11 in the postseason.
A lot of people were caught off guard that Mattingly was the bench coach for the Phillies this season after he left that same position on John Schneider's staff last season with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was a big part of their run to the World Series, but in Philadelphia, he's reunited with his son, Preston, who is their GM, marking the first father/son GM/manager duo in MLB.
Philadelphia is a big-market team with a huge payroll that is underachieving this season. It wasn't surprising that Thomson was fired, but the timing in April was. Now, Mattingly has plenty of experience with a high payroll roster and he'll look to turn things around. His second series will be against the Marlins. The first weekend in May is going to be an interesting one in Miami.
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