Don Mattingly and the Dodgers have mutually decided to part ways, as first reported from Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. The 54-year-old had served as the team’s manager for the last five seasons. Los Angeles will pay Mattingly the salary he was owed for 2016, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reports on Twitter.
It was a successful run overall for Mattingly, who oversaw three straight NL West division winners and five consecutive winning ballclubs. While his .551 overall winning percentage was impressive, though, the Dodgers’ post-season performances haven’t matched their regular season marks. Los Angeles won just one playoff series under Mattingly’s command.
Heyman describes the situation as amicable, even in parting. The front office continues to hold plenty of respect for Mattingly, who in turn does not feel mistreated by upper management. The broad issue, according to Heyman, is that “there wasn’t support for the long-term” for Mattingly.
It appears that the sides considered a continued relationship, as both acknowledged in announcing the move. Mattingly’s contract did have one year remaining on it, and some manner of extension was contemplated. (ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that an extension was offered, while Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets that it was discussed conceptually, but never formally offered.)
Ultimately, it does seem clear that all agreed to part ways. In a prepared statement, Friedman said that extensive discussion “evolved to a point where we all agreed that it might be best for both sides to start fresh,” a conclusion that ultimately was confirmed after further deliberation. Mattingly, meanwhile, echoed that, saying that “a fresh start would be good for both the organization and me.” He thanked the organization and said he hopes to continue managing with another team.
For Mattingly, it’s not a bad time to be hitting the open market. Numerous clubs — including the Marlins, who are said to have interest, as well as the Nationals, Mariners, and Padres  — are in search for new skippers. There’s little doubt he’ll draw interest after managing winning teams under two rather different front office regimes, in a huge market, and with a variety of high-priced and somewhat volatile players to be accounted for. As Heyman notes, though, his in-game strategy has drawn some critics.
Likewise, the Dodgers should have no trouble attracting candidates to their open post. With a talented roster (and the deep pockets to add to it), Los Angeles figures as a perennial contender. Of course, running the Dodgers ship is also one of the higher-pressure gigs in the game. It’s hard to know at present what direction president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman might go with a new hire. He inherited Mattingly when he came to L.A., and only oversaw one manager (Joe Maddon, now with the Cubs) while serving as the general manager of the Rays.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
He will be off to Miami, I presume.
To retire or to coach baseball?
Who holds the front office accountable for a series of (not all) bad moves and trade deadline blunders too numerous to mention? In the end, Donnie didn’t have all the weapons he needed. Hoping Andrew
The fans? I know, too much to hope for. This is looking like one of those corporate reorganizations where nobody really knows what the problem is so they change a few names and faces and hope that helps.
I agree the Dodgers blew the deadline so hard but still, Donnie Baseball doesn’t deserve that nickname because he knows nothing about managing a team.
Hoping Andrew
Mattingly was not a very good manager, he had no idea as to what he was doing.
This was a long time coming.
Agreed
Anyone who says that he wasn’t a good manager is obviously not paying attention. He dealt with a lot of player turnover, bad contracts/trades, and big market drama. He won every season and took his team to the playoffs. His decision making late in games and lineup juggling could be called into question at times but overall he was a solid manager and any team that hires him will be hiring a manager with experience and grit. I understand the Dodgers’ front office decision making as a whole. Obviously not trading for Hamels or Price was a tough call and could’ve very likely been the difference between advancing and not advancing but I like the fact that we got a couple of quality young players (Wood, Peraza) and didn’t sacrifice our top prospects. Parting ways with Donnie was the right thing to do for both parties because our product on the field is changing and sometimes the best way to get that moving in the right direction is a fresh start. Best of luck to Donnie wherever he lands and go Dodgers!!!
Managing a ballclub is like an iceberg: we only see the 10% above the waterline. A manager’s work can’t be fairly judged only by what the fans see. The big issue in parting with Mattingly now is that it throws the team into turmoil when stability is the needed thing.
“His decision making late in games and lineup juggling could be called into question” – his decision making late in games and lineup juggling were the only things he needed to do correctly and he didn’t, ergo, he was terrible at his job and deserved to be fired.
A manager can only play the cards he was dealt. He wasn’t given a reliable bullpen, and when they lost the heart of the rotation in April, he wasn’t given any replacements. Considering the cast of characters he was allowed to play, he did pretty well.
Bullpens under Friedman’s control has been up and down, but mostly down.
I would attribute this to Friedman’s saber-bent, his bullpens were strictly middle of the road in his last two seasons as Ray’s GM, and the saber rule that a lot of people believe is that relievers are fungible. The team during his reign as GM averaged 7th place out of 14 teams, or basically right in the middle of the league, when ranked by ERA. Bullpens under Friedman has been middle or lower in 7 out of 10 seasons.
Contrast that with the Giants bullpen, which has been in Top 5 in NL in 6 of the last 7 seasons.
The Dodgers were 11th out of 15 teams in 2015, which was not far from where they were in 2014, or 2013, or 2011, or 2010. Which I find exceedingly odd given that they play in a strong pitcher’s park.
They have averaged 10th in the NL in the past six seasons, with 9th place or worse in 5 of 6 seasons.
BlueSkyLA, with all due respect, not having a large amount of reliable tools, doesn’t excuse poor decision making with the tools he had.
A situation like bringing in Baez in an absolutely massive leverage situation in Game 1, instead of Jansen (or even Hatcher), was just the cherry on top of years of poor decisions.
I sincerely respect the reputation he’s gained as a fantastic manager of people, egos, and turnover. But the on-field product can’t continue to be managed so poorly. Basic mistakes can’t be overlooked anymore.
This kind of decision is as much the property of the bench and pitching coaches. Are they going to be fired too?
The buck absolutely stops with Donnie there. He’s capable of deciding what advice he takes.
And you have Mattingly bringing in his closer in the 7th inning? As if any manager is going to do that.
I’d throw the ball to my best pitcher when the situation is absolute peak high-leverage. There is no situation that would come that had a higher swing than that moment – regardless of those who still trumpet the “save” as being so important.
Unfortunately, Donnie couldn’t pull the trigger. And that’s pretty consistent with Kenley’s criminal under-usage in postseasons thus far. In the past four post-season series’, he’s thrown 8.2 innings. Because he’s the “closer”.
Fortunately, there’s a truckload of research and writing dedicated to the misuse of “closers”, for those interested in stepping out of the 80’s.
Again, bringing in a closer in the 7th inning? Would you expect to see that even in the deciding game of the World Series, let alone in the first game of the NLDS? Easy answer: no, of course you would not. Just keep blaming Mattingly for not doing what no manager would do, and see how it works out next year.
So it’s irony alert time. The new FO brought their data-driven approach to everything including in-game decisions like the one you are sure was so obviously absolutely the wrong one. But just keep blaming Mattingly. I’m sure that will work out fine too.
How can you send in Baez (hard fastball pitcher)to pitch against a team of young fastball hitters. He made several mistakes but this one in game 1 and the Murphy 3rd base mistake in game 5. Big, Big, Big mistakes
If decision making and lineup juggling were the only things managers needed to do, we would just let computers decide who should be playing. There are equally important things that a manager does on a daily basis, such as keeping a club house together, and from what I have read that is where Mattingly excelled…
True, and this is why he was so clear after last season about not being able to manage as a lame duck. Players needs to know that the manager has the complete support of ownership or the more difficult to handle players will just shine him on or wait him out. So who are they going to find from outside the organization who comes with that level of respect? Anybody who brings a better record to the table? Anybody who hasn’t been fired from 2-3 teams already? The best we can hope for now is they promote Tim Wallach. Otherwise this is just another face-palm moment for fans who know firing Mattingly will not improve the Dodgers.
While I disagree with your assessment of Donnie, I whole-heartedly agree with giving Wallach the gig. I believe he should have been given the role in the first place, however, late is better than never.
Mind you I don’t think giving the job to Wallach cures anything, but it might mitigate some of the damage. Also if it’s the in-game decisions you don’t like then keep in mind that Wallach was Mattingly’s bench coach, so if you think that aspect of the game is going to change drastically under Wallach then you are bound to be unhappy again.
Actually your remarks are only part of his problems. DM only used what the Dodgers did during the year “HOMERUNS” All were waiting for those long balls instead of doing the little things. Maybe I’m old time baseball but you can always count on single base hits, stealing, running xtra bases (like yasiel), bunting (which I understand most don’t know how to do, the same for stealing bases) They have Davey Lopes, Maury Wills so knowing those two things are a must. In the beginning DM thought he was in an Ice Cream shop or still in Spring Training. I heard Friedman or the other guy made the roster decisions. Thats stupid if true & I didn’t get that impression but who knows.I was so tired of the line changes I openly started a twitter, facebook etc war. Any one who would listen to me complain, I was loud & clear. Lots complain of needing another pitcher, I didn’t agree, Manageing Kershaw & Greinke was enough but everyone forgot we still had RYU & ANDREW coming in 2016, with BRETT & ALEX in the wings. During the season the BP killed us, that should be our focus!Oh for the record Greinke took the blame for Murphy getting to 3rd & nobody being there. That’s the shortstops job he’s captain infield! But Corey Seager is major “ROOKIE”. Jimmy Rollins should have been there, We needed DEFENSE, We went after Jimmy for POSTSEASON DEFENSE, So why is my ?? There was enough offense w/Greinke on the mound. That was a momentum change that we just couldn’t get past. In a Do or Die, You Do what must be done, that one is on DM.
Donnie was a horrible manager but I think Friedman may be a horrible GM as well. I’ll give him this off-season before I truly judge him but from what I’m reading the Dodgers offered Dummy Donnie a contract extension?!?!?
Donnie should have been fired about 4 years ago and this FO wanted to bring him back for even more years?!?!
The FO has mad numerous mistakes in it’s first year but the biggest was not firing Donnie last year and hiring Maddon.
I don’t know who the Dodgers are planning to replace Dummy but I”m guessing it will be Renokie (spelling?) who they hired to be third base coach during the season.
Not really sure how good of a manager he will be but he can’t be any worse than Dummie.
Maddon would’ve resulted in exactly the same finish as this year’s Dodger club. The horses were not there. Anyone who watched this team all year long knows that.
I don’t believe Mattingly was responsible for Kershaw’s poor performances in the post season no more than Bruce Bochy was the reason Madison Bumgarner has an incredible record in the playoffs.
Kershaw didn’t even perform poorly, but that starting lineup Mattingly put out there sure did.
I see and agree with your point, for the most part, but Bochy is part of the equation leading to Bumgarner’s success in the playoffs.
Bumgarner actually had an up and down record in the playoffs before 2014, which is the year he got on everyone’s radar. He has shone brightly in the World Series and in the 2014 playoffs, but his record leading up to WS has been more down than up, in 2010 and 2012. In fact, they skipped a start in the NLCS in 2012, as his mechanics were off, and as his great start against Detroit showed, they were able to fix him up.
I think most managers would have done the CYA route and started Bumgarner, and Madison would have been blown up and the Giants would have lost that series, since they were on the brink of elimination, giving him one more bad playoff start and, of course, he would not have been able to pitch well against Detroit because the Giants would not have been in the World Series had Bumgarner pitched and lost in the NLCS. Without that move by Bochy to skip his start, that would have greatly affected Bumgarner’s playoff record, as he loses his great 2012 WS start and replaces that with another start like his start against the Cards.
On top of that, not every player will be able to handle such an open demotion in the glare of the playoff spotlight and still be able to play for the manager, yet Bumgarner has risen to even greater heights after 2012. Bochy was able to do that not only with Bumgarner, but also Zito, whom Bochy left off the entire 2010 playoff rosters, and Sandoval, whom Bochy dropped out of the World Series lineup, sitting him for the whole series.
So while Bochy is not the reason, he has most definitely been a contributing factor in how he has handled Bumgarner, both in the playoffs as well as a human.
Would love to see him back in the Bronx as the hitting coach, but I know there’s about a Zero percent chance of that happening.
Maybe Jack Clark is available!
Could have had Madden but the Dodger FO blew that chance
“There’s little doubt he’ll draw interest after managing WINTER teams under two rather different front office regimes, in a huge market, and with a variety of high-priced and somewhat volatile players to be accounted for.”
What is a winter team?
Evidence someone needs to turn off auto-correct.
My guess was “winning” teams.
Well, there are winter teams (Venezuela, etc.), but I did indeed mean “winning.”
Why should there have been long term support for Mattingly after consistently failing to advance in the playoffs? The notion that front office need to coddle a “lame duck” manager is ridiculous, especially one like Mattingly, who legitimately doesn’t need to worry about working another day in his life.
Managers are the fall guys. Right or wrong, that’s the way it’s always been.
So a change needed to be made, even if it was the wrong one?
No, but a long term extension definitely didn’t need to be made either.
You don’t seem to be getting the announcement. The Dodger’s FO offered Mattingly an extension, but apparently not enough assurance to Donnie that he felt that he didn’t have support long-term. They didn’t want to make a change, they were just doing the normal MLB management thing where the manager has a short leash to win it all before the management go in another direction. Mattingly either didn’t get that or he wanted to move to what he felt would be a better situation.
Mattingly is the one who decided that a change was necessary. Right or wrong, that is on him, if it were up to the Dodger’s FO, Mattingly would right now be the manager of the 2016 Dodgers (though how much longer beyond that, who knows, this extension could be their version of the golden parachute for managers).
I get the announcement. I get that he was paid in full for the last year of a contract that he won’t be asked to fulfill. So forget the atmospherics. He was fired.
I get the announcement. Mattingly doesn’t think he’s their long term guy. I don’t think that should matter. Why should they give him that reassurance or why should he expect it?
I was replying to BlueSkyLA, if you look at the timing and the length of my reply, I was working on my comment when your comment came in. This system does not update the thread until I’m done, unlike other, better, commenting systems.
I think we can agree that this commenting system is awful. Anyway my response to you is I suppose I can give the Dodgers credit for making it look nice and tidy and somehow mutual, but in reality he was paid to go away. That means fired.
I would agree that it was a vote of little confidence, since they didn’t give him long-term assurances. But you aren’t firing someone who you offered another year in extension to, he quit. And you don’t offer another year in extension to someone you are paying to go away, unless you are missing something in the noggin.
Which brings up your great and apt point below that Friedman’s additions did nothing much to help Mattingly in 2015. Adding up all the WAR in BB-Ref, I came up with less than 1 WAR. In fact, a large number of his in-season moves was what made the total under 1 WAR, they subtracted when he should have been trying to add.
We don’t know what was discussed in terms of an extension and the reports are contradictory. The most logical explanation is Mattingly asked for another year (his objection to managing as a lame duck is on the record from last year) but did not get the answer he wanted. At that point he can only say I will manage unhappily for another season or you pay me to leave. When a player is released with dollars on his contract everybody knows what that means. It means they’d rather pay him than play him. No real difference here.
LOL @ the people calling Freidman a bad GM now. Even his questionable moves, such as the Latos and Wood trades aren’t as bad because they didn’t give up anything.
Even when trading Dee, they got back a lot. Heaney for Kendrick was the only bad decision, but they covered their tracks by acquiring a similar pitcher in Alex Wood.
Wood is nowhere near close to the ceiling or talent level of Heaney.
Heaney is probably a 3-4 starter going forward. Wood has been that for the last 3 years.
LOL @ getting us Latos, Wood, and Johnson. Pretty much everybody who actually contributed to this season was signed by that other guy. You know, the bad GM.
Also got Jose Peraza in that that deal and Wood is probably better than what he was the last 3 months. Ad again, they gave up little to ger those players.
Peraza might be useful some day, and Wood might be too — but not when they were needed to be useful.
You mean other than Kendrick, Hernandez, Grandal, Hatcher, Bolsinger, and Anderson right? Come on, they’ve made a lot of productive moves. Latos didn’t work but also didn’t cost hardly anything. Wood is a cost controlled lefty with upside.
Kendrick was a good move, if you don’t count who he replaced (and the fact that he was a glorified rental). Hernandez I also like but he was and will be a utility player. Hatcher I think you forget was pretty awful for most of the season. Has he gotten it together now? We will see. With Grandal we will also see if and when he recovers from his bad shoulder. Bolsinger was a depth pick who ended up being a frontline starter. Any time that works out it’s more luck than good planning. It’s fine that they didn’t give up much to get players who didn’t work out, but the reality is, they didn’t work out. Another price was paid for that.
Wow, looked through LA’s WAR leaders and, not only were the vast majority of the leaders were from Sheriff Ned, but if you add up all the negative WAR from the players Friedman added, his acquisitions pretty much totalled around 0 WAR, I think less than 1 WAR, if I got the right guys who were added by Friedman.
So basically all his moves added up to not even one win to the team, they just shuffled the deck chairs around, even with a nice adds in Grandal and Bolsinger, the others were just that negative.
What?? The Latos trade wasn’t as bad? Not only did he implode, but what contribution Bolsinger had made was lost by moving him out and down to Triple A.
Mattingly must really want one of the openings available right now, to decide to leave when he has a year still on his contract PLUS the offer of an extension.
Shows why I will miss him as the Dodgers manager, he’s not willing to go to the mat to win, he could have stayed and had at least two years to win the Championship that the owners clearly want, that’s the main reason he doesn’t have support long term, if he won, that would change.
To contrast, when Giants ownership changed, Neukom left both Sabean and Bochy as lame ducks, not giving either an extension, talk about lack of support long-term, but both stayed and won the championship in 2010. It was not like Bochy’s situation with SD, when Alderson (yes, Mets GM) decided to not only not offer an extension, but told Bochy that it was OK for him to look for another job elsewhere (as that would save the Padres from having to fire him and pay him his salary for that last season). THAT is a lack of long term support.
It could also mean that Donnie 1) don’t believe he has the players to win with, and/or 2) don’t believe in the vision that Friedman has.
Net, net, I’m encouraged by the news. I’m sad that Donnie-Ball is leaving, as Bochy has managed circles around him over the years. But I thought it would be a totally negative announcement, that the Dodgers fired him. Unless it was just fake PR, they wanted to extend him and give him another two years, which shows lack of judgement on their part, because Mattingly should have been fired long ago. I wasn’t too impressed with Friedman from his time with Tampa Bay, and this just lowers my opinion of him.
Donnie really really isn’t as bad as you’re making him out to be.
Then perhaps he was just bad only in games against the Giants, but I don’t know how many times the announcers were shaking their heads on his moves over the years.
Of course it’s fake PR. They’re not gonna trash the guy they just gunned!!!
No, they could have just said that Mattingly and the team were going in different directions and left it at that, like many and most teams do.
There are ways of trashing the guy by what is not said than what is said. For example, how Alderson pushed out Bochy out of SD, telling him that it’s OK if he looks for another job, but if not, he’s not getting an extension beyond his remaining year.
Terrible manager who should have had this team in the World Series right now. His handling of Puig and in-game choices were the worst seen since Ron Washington and his loaded Texas rosters. When you have so much talent but still somehow manage your way OUT of games is when you probably should look at other forms of employment.
CJC, that Dodgers team was NOT World Series ready. No way. The rotation couldn’t touch the Mets 1 thru 5, or even 1-3. And as for so much talent, I hope you meant to say “high priced vets who can’t spend 3/4 of the season on the field and hit better than .250. Cause if you don’t, you weren’t watching the 2015 Dodgers.
Losing Ryu really hurt the team. If the Mets lost there 2nd or 3rd starter. They would look a lot different as well.
Losing Ryu and McCarthy was bad. Not finding anyone credible to replace them was worse.
Correct. The idea was towards the postseason a clutch power hitter wouldn’t have been bad to have had either.
I think the rotation stacked up just fine against the Mets. Dodgers had two of the top 3 pitchers in the NL. Anderson did not pitch well in his start, but Kershaw and Greinke were going to come back in Games 4 and 5. The problem was the offense relied way too much on home runs to score and they were unable to come up with clutch hits against deGrom in Game 5. If they were able to do that early in Game 5, this is a totally different conversation.
Yup and considering how handily the Mets dispatched the Cubs, Dodgers fans have every reason to believe we were a run or two away from a World Series.
Mattingly strikes me as a reactive manager. He doesn’t do anything about a situation before hand. To me, that doesn’t make for a good manager.
Every manager has his in-game decisions questioned. 29 fan bases say their manager doesn’t know what he’s doing, and 1 fan base says their manager got lucky.
I feel like Ron Gardenhire couldn’t manage his way out of a wet paper bag because I spend too much time watching the Twins, but he has a very high level of respect around the game.
Thank you.
Good luck Donnie.
As a Mets fan who saw him manage during the NLDS, let me say I am looking forward to him getting the job with the Nats or Marlins.
I mean, I’m sure there’s pressure in LA but not like Boston or NY or Philly. Nobody is going to confuse LA baseball with a pressure cooker
I take it you have never been to a Dodger game.
I usually stay out of these type of discussions but I couldn’t help myself this time. For those of you who have made comments about Mattingly not being given the proper players to work with all I can say is DAMN!! Are you serious!! Not even the Yankees have spent this kind of money to try and buy a World Series. I can’t think of a manager who has been given so much ch to work with. If you can’t make it happen with what he was given you should go back to coaching high school baseball. All of my friends who are Dodger fans and have a good knowledge of baseball hated the minute he was hired. None the less, in a situation where an ownership group spends that kind of money they do expect a championship caliber performance and when that doesn’t happen after a few years someone will always be fired so it appears as if they are making changes.
I can’t complain though, since my team decided not to show up this year there is nothing more pleasurable than seeing the Dodgers choke again! Some day they will learn that Campionship teams are built, not bought. You would think they could learn from their biggest rival. What the Giants have done speaks for itself. If winning the division is all the Dodgers set out to accomplish each year then they are on trac. Personally I will take winning Championships from the Wild Card any day.
Sincerely,
Content Giants Fan
The Giants’ end-of-year payroll in 2014 was $165MM, and it jumped to $174MM to open this year. They also offered Jon Lester $168MM over seven years last offseason.
I’m not a Dodgers fan, nor am I a Giants fan. But to suggest that the Giants operate like some kind of small-market club is bizarre.
Sadly, the West Coast rivalry often takes on the weird tribal character you are seeing here.
The Giants payroll is where it is because they take care of their own. Most of the money spent is on players who have come up through their system. I was not implying that the Giants operate like a small market club. My comment was only to say that they have developed these players rather than signing high priced veterans. In developing players the way they have means there won’t be dealing with players with huge ego’s. They are able to mold them from the beginning. Also, when the Giants trade or sign free agents they are not only looking for talent, they are just as concerned about the mentality of the player and how his personality will fit the club. Chemistry plays a much larger role than people realize. Brian and Bochy are able to get the most out of any player they sign. The Giants have never looked like Champions based on the roster on paper but the 3 out of six proves that heart and comradiery can play a larger importance than shear talent. Enough of this rant. Hope you have a great day!
Take care of your own? Like peavy, Hudson, and pence? And get the most out of the players they sign? You mean like when they resigned cain and Timmy?
Not really a good idea to be throwing stones.
Smug, much?