The Nashville Stars, a hopeful expansion franchise led by a group including former big league pitcher and D-backs GM Dave Stewart, announced Tuesday that Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly has been named an advisor to the organization’s ownership group (officially titled Music City Baseball, LLC). The Stars/Music City Baseball also count Tony La Russa and Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin among their baseball advisors. Stewart, La Russa and Dave Dombrowski joined the Nashville group back in July 2020, and the Stars’ web site still lists Dombrowski as an advisor even after his hiring as Phillies president of baseball ops in Dec. 2020.
Mattingly will still serve as the Blue Jays’ bench coach this coming season. The Stars’ press release indicates that he will “provide counsel on key strategic matters and work to gain support in bringing a Major League Baseball franchise to Nashville.”
“Simply put, Don Mattingly knows baseball,” Stewart said in a statement within today’s press release. “He was a pure hitter, played near-flawless defense, and has been successful as a manager and coach because of his baseball mind. He is well-respected around the game of baseball, and we are lucky to have him with us.”
Mattingly, indeed, has an immensely impressive baseball resume spanning 14 seasons as a player and another dozen as a manager. The 1985 American League MVP, Mattingly was named to six All-Star teams and also won nine Gold Gloves and three Silver Slugger Awards. He retired after his age-34 season with a career .307/.358/.471 batting line, 222 home runs, 442 doubles and vastly more walks (558) than strikeouts (444).
Since retiring, Mattingly has served as both the hitting coach and bench coach for the Yankees, as well as the hitting coach for the Dodgers. Following the 2010 season, the Dodgers tabbed Mattingly as the successor to manager Joe Torre. He managed in L.A. from 2011-15 and in Miami from 2016-22. Mattingly remained at the Marlins’ helm through a sale of the franchise and a front office overhaul, but he and the team agreed to part ways late in the 2022 season. The 2023 campaign will be his first as the Blue Jays’ bench coach, and he’ll provide some valuable experience to John Schneider in his first full season as a Major League manager.
In addition to Mattingly, La Russa, Corbin and Dombrowski, some of the current and former advisors to the Stars/Music City Baseball include Bruce Bochy, R.A. Dickey, Mike Shildt, Barry Zito, Jarrod Parker and Todd Jones, per the Stars’ web site. There’s no clear timetable for when the league might earnestly seek to expand beyond its current slate of 30 teams. Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated at multiple times in the past that he indeed hopes to bring about further expansion of the league, though he’s also indicated that the long-running stadium issues for both the A’s and Rays must be addressed.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first reported that Mattingly had been named an advisor to the Stars’ ownership group.
Are we gonna do 4 divisions once we get 2 new teams or 2 leagues no divisions?
I imagine 4 4 team divisions in each league. However, i do wonder now that the NL has the DH and the fact that the schedule now has every team playing each other will it still be American League/National League or will we get drastic realignment and have an NBA/NHL style East/West
In a sport that loves its history, I can’t see an elimination of the NL and AL names, but realignment, and even some teams switching leagues, could happen.
The few things that I’ve read on it, the plan now is to stick with AL/NL, but as RSox points out, since everyone plays by the same rules, geographic realignment is going to take place. For example: Miami, Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Nashville. Imagine the possibilities…
The game does. Manfred not so much…
They should just go ahead and re-align now. With the universal DH nothing is stopping them. Don’t change the names of the leagues though. They are classic. Just set it so that all the Western teams are American League and all the Eastern teams are National League. They would create some incredible division rivalries while also saving a ton of money on travel and fuel. The divisions could easily work out like:
Instead of the AL East you would have a division made up of-
1. Toronto Blue Jays
2. Minnesota Twins
3. Milwaukee Brewers
4. Cincinnati Reds (brand new Ohio state divisional rivalry)
5. Cleveland Guardians (new Ohio state divisional rivalry)
Instead of the AL Central you could have-
1. Seattle Mariners
2. Colorado Rockies
3. Arizona Diamondbacks
4. Texas Rangers (keep the Texas Lone Star State divisional rivalry alive)
5. Houston Astros (Texas state divisional rivalry)
Instead of the AL West you could literally just have the California State Division 5 way rivalry-
1. San Diego Padres
2. Oakland Athletics (also brand new Bay area rivalry)
3. San Francisco Giants (Bay area rivalry)
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (keeps Dodgers/Giants rivalry alive while also creating a brand new LA rivalry)
5. Los Angeles Angels (LA rivalry)
Instead of the NL West you could have-
1. Detroit Tigers
2. Kansas City Royals (brand new Missouri state rivalry)
3. St. Louis Cardinals (Missouri rivalry and keeps Cards Cubs rivalry alive)
4. Chicago Cubs (brand new North Side/South Side Chicago divisional rivalry)
5. Chicago White Sox (new Chicago rivalry)
Instead of the NL Central you could have the NL South-
1. Atlanta Braves
2. Baltimore Orioles (creates brand new Mid-Atlantic rivalry. O’s and Nats really hate each other. It could also alleviate some of the disagreement about which team gets watched more on the network because they would play more games together which means more games where the fans would be watching both teams to lessen the argument on each side.)
3. Washington Nationals (Mid-Atlantic rivalry)
4. Tampa Bay Rays (creates brand new Florida state rivalry)
5. Miami Marlins (Florida rivalry)
Instead of the NL East you could have the NL North-
1. Pittsburgh Pirates (creates brand new Pennsylvania state rivalry with Phillies. The fact these 2 teams play in both the same league and the same state but somehow aren’t in the same division is ridiculous.)
2. Philadelphia Phillies (Pennsylvania divisional rivalry)
3. Boston Red Sox (keeps Red Sox/Yankees division rivalry alive)
4. New York Yankees (keeps Red Sox rivalry alive and starts brand new New York City rivalry with the Mets)
5. New York Mets (brand new NYC rivalry with Yanks)
They really should just go ahead and do it now. It’s going to take much longer than people think for expansion. The A’s, Rays and possibly even Angels will all have to get new stadiums and the Angels and Nats will both have to be sold to new owners before they even start breaking ground on a stadium for a 31st and 32nd team. We are talking several years at the very least. For anyone who cares about environmental stuff it would also have to be much better for the environment. I personally love it because I think all the rivalries will be great for baseball and make more people want to watch more regular season games. But that’s also a whole lot less jet fuel MLB would burn every season. The fact that the Miami Marlins are constantly having to fly all the way back and forth from New York when they could easily just be going to Tampa Bay instead is sort of asinine. A Yankees/Mets division rivalry would be great too. All the different California rivalries would make it exciting as well. Plus the game times would make a lot more sense to the fans since all the Cali teams play in the same time zone instead of playing in place like Colorado and Texas who are multiple hours ahead of them. Fans don’t want to watch games that start at 4pm or after 10pm like happens all the time now. fans want to watch games around 7pm. This would make that a lot easier. This part is totally off-topic but it might not be a bad idea for the Blue Jays to just switch their name to the Canada Blue Jays. They are the only team in that country anyway. It could really expand their fan base if everyone in the country felt like they were supporting their country by watching the team instead of just rooting for 1 city that’s thousands of miles away.
Personally I like the idea of just the AL and NL with no divisions.
I don’t think we’ll see anything drastic
prov just Rays become Stars and Athletics represent Las Vegas
I don’t think we will see relocation as that takes potential expansion sites off the board. It sounds like Nashville wants a brand new, no history, no baggage franchise to call their own and with MLB falling behind the NFL/NHL/NBA in total number of franchises expect expansion the moment the A’s/Rays stadium situations are resolved
why would the league want expansion?
extra slices of pie mean less profit
Massive franchise entry fees, tv contracts, expanded playoffs. Why wouldn’t MLB want expansion?
To some extant I agree, but unfortunately it would probably mean more playoff teams. Top 8 teams make the playoffs. So play 162 to eliminate just 7 teams. And some fans love those meaningless division titles. To me only the LCS and World Series really matter.
Stars sound like a hockey or NBA team.
Stars sound like a hockey or WNBA team.
Fixed it for you 😉
Stars sounds like a hockey or ABA team.
Fixed?
We must be old, RC! We both remember the Utah Stars!
The USFL Philadelphia Stars say hello.
For Love of the Game. Zelmo Beaty for life.
Jackie Moon is looking to bring the Tropics back into the mix also.
Nashville Stats honoring a Negro League team.
That’s really cool, Bill. I hadn’t realized that origin of the name. Makes a big difference.
The “Stars” work because of the dual meaning of honoring the old Negro League team, and the celebrity neighbors here in Music City.
I guess technically it is an NHL team (Dallas Stars). However, many moons ago the Nashville Stars were a Negro League team from the 1930’s-50’s, I’m guessing the name is a homage to that team
And except for Norm Green, running the franchise out of town to escape the embarrassment over harassment charges that franchise would still be the heritage rich Minnesota North Stars.
Dallas Stars were Minnesota North Stars
just didn’t make sense to keep the North part when they moved down south to Dallas
Hi Clipper! The Stars will be awesome.
tennessean.com/story/sports/baseball/2019/10/01/na…
Thanks, Prov! I’ll check it out right now. Got to be really exciting for you knowing it’s a matter of time.
Prov, that is beautiful! What an awesome looking stadium right on the water. The dual venue is really cool as well and can be used to do concerts right after the game in Cumberland Park it appears. I’m a big fan already.
Would be fantastic for NASH to get a team. Been one of hottest expanding real estate markets in US for a while now. Great town
Nashville seems guaranteed to get a team. Question remains will it be expansion or relocation. I suspect the former.
There was chatter a few years ago about the Rays moving here. That would be fine but it seems like they might have plans for Montreal.
I suspect the owners would highly prefer expansion over relocation. After all, the owners share a rather large expansion fee, and fairly little for relocation. Money speaks.
You also have to look at the support the other teams get in Nashville. They just got an MLS team not so long ago and they seem to show up to games. The South is the obvious expansion location for MLB as they have no team in Nashville, New Orleans or Carolina like the other sports league
A’s owner Fisher has made it known if a city gives him $1 billion plus for a new stadium he will move. He doesn’t want to use any of his money just tax payers money for a new stadium.
Go ahead, water it down some more.
My God, man! I’ve watered it down as far as she’ll go. I cannae water no more!
The level of competition in MLB is at an historic high, at least when it comes to talent. Tanking is another issue.
MLB talent is at an all time. Competition levels all time low. Get real is referring to competition
Rumor has it Tony LaRussa is being hired as the teams bartender/Uber driver
I think MLB needs to go to 40 teams, 5 across eight divisions.
Sets up for a sweet playoff tournament where all the division winners get a first round bye, and second and third in each division play a series for the right to play the division champ, winner of that series makes it to an eight team playoff.
That format really puts the honess back to divisional play, and in winning the division, instead of all the wild cards which are uncompetitive in some sense.
Playing within the division, which should be realigned regionally, will bring back interdivision rivalries and ultimately this will be good for fans. Forty teams should be the goal.
A couple more teams in Canada, possibly a team in Mexico, but that would be sweet, forty teams, should do a broad expansion and get this rolling before I croak off.
I agree except, do away with divisions. Take the the top teams by record, especially if we’re doing this even scheduling thing.
I am more for putting more importance in winning the division, and even finishing second or third in the division, really putting a honess on regions.
And, the divisions would realign, with schedules weighted more towards interdivision play, and less interleague play.
I think the regular season would benefit from stronger regions and divisional rivalries. I’d put the Cubs and the Sox in the same division, I’d put the Yankees and the Mets in the same division.
Twenty or more games every year with each team in your division, the cross town rivalries would play meaningful games, and fans could easily travel to attend divisional rivalries with as divisions would be more closely aligned.
Where it really gets good, in my opinion, is in the playoffs, where you could potentially have two teams from different regions who possibly did not play each other in the regular season.
I think those types of games are more intriguing, and the fans can then get behind their region as the playoffs enter the championship series.
Say the Giants didn’t make it to the playoffs, but the Mariners are representing the Pacific NW division, and make it to the World Series, if MLB regular season was really focused on divisional play, fans of teams in the Pacific Northwest division would have a stronger connection to all the teams in the Pacific Northwest Division, and could subsequently root for any team representing the region.
Moving away from regional play and divisional play in my opinion takes away from those rivalries that exist within the division and across regions.
I like divisions, but I think with the 2023 scheduling, they’re useless and even detrimental. You can’t really help your cause against a division rival when you play an interleague team almost as much. So I say get rid of this balanced schedule or get rid of divisions.
NO TO EXPANSION!
ENOUGH CRAPOY TEAMS AND CRAPPY OWNERS LIKE THE DETROIT TIGERS
ARE THERE ENOUGH TEAMS TANKING ALREADY?
MLB IS A RIP OFF
Yet here you are Saber.
In a sport where the Oakland A’s, Angels, Reds and to some extent the Brewers exist, you pick the Tigers – a team that went out and immediately signed Eduardo Rodriguez then Javier Baez, among others, as soon as the team showed signs of life – as your example for a team with crappy owners? The results were just not there, but that is hardly the owner’s fault that virtually the entire roster slumped or sustained a major injury.
But you DID type it in all caps, so it does make your point stronger.
DufusFife is a disgruntled Tiger “fan” who keeps interviewing for a GM job that he’ll never get. Better to put him on ignore, but then you’d miss a good laugh from his mindless rants. Don’t take him seriously – no one else does.
Perhaps he needs to put his resume in all caps to really get the Tigers attention.
By investing, the Superfife meant signing tradable contracts, ones with team options, ones with signing bonuses that lower the cost to receiving teams. Ones that bridge the gap between what the player wants and what that “cusp” team wants to pay. Pay a guy a little extra if need be to be that trade chip. Take on salary for prospects. Don’t be afraid to trade good players or rookies. I wouldn’t mind seeing LA or the Mets pay Mr.Riley Greene, the big money Detroit can’t afford. I would like to see the guys succeed, and that should be part of the strategy of getting a good return, not trying to “win” the trade by tricking or cheating someone. Send package deals to get a better return. Trade the kitchen sink.
Last year, I said a lot of managers were on the hotseat seat. Hinch is still popular, we should trade him….you know what you guys said…how fos I am. Well, how many got canned?
Yeah, I literally had a pipe dream.of daisy chaining 4 of the guys that did get fired, packaged with some prospects and dreamed of the multiple prospect from four teams by swapping 5 managers…..well, all those guys did get fired and as far as I am concerned fans missed out.
Tell me I am fos again.
We just have different concepts of what it takes. All the GMs are cookie cutter BSrs….
Hotdogs should not cost that much!
It’s just plain un-American. McCarthy should be called!
Hire the Superfife!
And…now you know why I use all caps.
Throwing $25 Mil at some dude to grab some headlines and try to pacify a disgruntled fanbase is not investing. We’ve seen it.
Give the fans what they deserve for God’s sake.
WHY ARE YOU YELLING?
Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you’re trying to argue but don’t have anything to support your argument, just be louder? If not, I’ve been doing it all wrong.
Well a whole generation has grown up now with someone who did that, after all.
Saber, look to your right and go to Hoops Rumors!
I didn’t realize that he ledt the Dodgers such a long time ago.
This impacts the Phillies because Dombrowski has a clause that he could opt out once Nashville gets a team.
Manfred told Dombrowski there wont be a nashville team until the problem with oakland and tampa stadium is resolved there is article abouit the details of DD signing with phillies
I’m not sure Manfred’s word can be taken at face value.
Sounds like a conflict of interest here.
I am assuming Dave Stewart will have zero control over player personal, if they get a team, considering his track record.
That’s what I’m talking about! It just needs to be an American League team so I can go to all the Angels games here.
I find it interesting that MLB is allowing Dombrowski and Mattingly to work for one existing team and another potentially existing team at the same time. I’m not crying foul or calling shenanigans, I just wouldn’t have expected it to be permitted because of potential conflicts of interest. I suppose that once a Nashville franchise would become official, those two would have to step down from their non-Nashville jobs in short order.
Also, I don’t like the Stars name at all. It’s a very cool reason for choosing that name, but the nickname “Stars” has been used so many times in other professional sports that it feels watered down.
Good. Portland, Las Vegas, and a Canadian City like Montreal or Vancouver deserve an MLB team too. We should expand at least 4 major league teams.
Manfred likes to hold cities hostage for tax payer money so they probably won’t expand until Oakland and Tampa get new stadiums.
What if they did a team in Mexico City. They have the largest population in North America.
The Mexico City Cartels?
Seriously, I see issues with a MLB team in Mexico coming from the MLBPA.
Problems with that idea: travel, altitude, and the border wall (just kidding on the last one, I think).
Charlotte would be a good city too.
We need significant expansion and relegation.
I’ve always wished that American pro sports could figure out a way to adopt relegation. It makes the later season games so much more interesting for everyone, and no one tanks. Sides, it would just be hilarious to me, for example, see the Scranton~Wilkes Barre Rail Riders in he NL East this year while the Washington Nationals are riding around on buses in AAA.
Twins Hrbek may have been better at 1B and won two WS but didn’t get the shine of playing in NY. You can find him fishing a lot.
They need to fix the revenue disparity issues in MLB before they consider expansion. We don’t need any more small market franchises feeding players to the large market clubs. If there is not a level playing field, the sport will continue to lose young people, especially in flyover country.
All MLB teams are quite profitable.
You’ve seen the books?
I thought not.
Yes. The problem is that only some mid- and small market teams spend their profits on players. That’s what Stan is talking about.
Expansion helps the small market teams.
Clubs like the Dodgers have tons of talent not on their 40 man but roster spots are too rare for teams to take more chances.
Expansion is good for parity by siphoning talent from the best teams and allowing the bottom teams a new competitor to beat up on.
I think the big market teams will keep top best talent while small market teams will share a diluted pool of lesser players.
Yes to expansion. Double the teams and expand globally!!!
We could have two leagues, the Republican League and the Democrat League. The Republican League has 15 rounds of playoffs to decide who plays in the World Series while the Democrat League charges a billion dollars for rich people to attend and gives away free seats to any visiting Martians. Gort klaatu barada nikto.
The Republican League would win most World Series because flying from the East Coast to the West Coast all the time would tire out the Democrat League players!
I believe that the Republican League would lose the World Series in seven games, but refuse to honor the results and storm the Commissioner’s office to have him find two extra runs somewhere…
Time to rid of parties, and lobbyists. Time for term limits too!
Pirates are perfect to buy can’t afford were they are
I’m fine with 32 but no larger. Just do it already. Oakland and Tampa will do whatever… keep the leagues intact!!! The history matters! Sox and Cubs in the same division would suck!
I can understand that Mattingly as a bench coach has very little conflict of interest with a corporation that is geared towards building a viable franchise down the road. Dombrowski…that one is harder for me as he is the head of baseball operations of an entire organization.
On the surface, the names attached are mostly there to act as credibility on the masthead anyway as they have to go through the process with the communities. There is no team to run yet, and the conflict is minimal. MiddleBucks knew about this when he hired him, and basically said that he has an out whenever he wants it.. But the Phils look as if they are going to try to make it hard for him to leave.
Maybe Stewart and LaRussa can recapture the magic they made in Arizona………or was that Oakland?
I hope the Dallas Stars allow them to use the “Stars” moniker. The Nashville Stars sounds so good to me
can teams come up with their own nickname? why steal from the Dallas Stars. What happened to originality?
Nashville and Montreal. Two awesome cities. Let’s get it done!
Agreed, and move the Rays and A’s at the same time to Charlotte, and Vegas.
I’m not a fan of expansion with so many teams already fielding essentially a triple a roster. You aren’t going to increase the available talent. You’re going to spread it out. I think it’s the same with fans. There are many regional baseball fans in the south and midwest. You’re going to be taking fans from existing teams more than you’re adding new fans. Which baseball team are the people in and around Nashville following? I can see Atlanta, St. Louis, and Cincinnati all losing fans to a Nashville team. Who are the baseball fans in Memphis, Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi currently following? I hope MLB is including those questions in their studies.
Don’t automatically assume this will all be addition without subtraction in other places. Given the demographics of baseball fans, contraction may be in the future. Soccer has replaced baseball as the most popular sport of the young by a wide margin. Professional baseball can resist that for only so long. I see the shift to professional soccer happening quickly once the dam breaks an it begins. in earnest. Once the shift happens baseball will also lose athletes to the more popular sport. Baseball will become the fifth choice of the highly gifted athletes.
“I’m not a fan of expansion with so many teams already fielding essentially a Triple A roster.”
Couldn’t agree more. If anything, they should contract.
Being a long time Brewers fan who has lived in TN my whole life, I was excited when their AAA team came to Nashville.
But I admit I would be more than slightly torn if TN got their own team. Especially if that team wound up in the same division as Milwaukee.
So we are going to add another small market team when the existing ones are already priced out of most of the better free agents and there is not enough good pitching for the
So we are going to add another small market team when the existing ones are already priced out of most of the better free agents and there is not enough good pitching for the league already?
I’d like to see this group buy the reds. Nashville Reds has a nice ring to it
Parity is going to be so terrible moving forward baseball would do better with just 2 divisions AL and NL. Expand to 32 teams and let top 8 make playoffs from each league. That is the only way a team like Miami or Baltimore will ever have a chance to compete.
St. Louis needs to lock up it’s Memphis AAA team long term or buy it outright now. They would lose a vital market if a Nashville team was able to lure the Memphis AAA team to affiliate with them. I’m sure that would be on the to do list of any Nashville team wanting to steal the market. I’m sure St. Louis moved their AAA there in 1998 to help soldify that market. Just like they moved the AA affiliate to Springfield to keep southwest Missouri from following KC. People like following players they’ve seen in the minors.
Dave Stewart and Tony Larussa? Not the best decision-makers, but maybe the group has them to suggest ideas and then they do the opposite.
Maybe Stewart can sign Yasmanny Tomas and Yoan Lopez again. Or trade a competitive draft pick to offload a contract like a dope.
Expand to 32 teams and set up the divisions like the NFL. Establish the Nashville Stars and bring back the Montreal Expos. A’s future likely is in Las Vegas. Rays I think stay in FL but with a new stadium in Tampa instead of St. Pete’s.
Nashville stars sounds stupid
Nashville Reds though. That’s where it’s at !
In reviews from.the vomitorium…..
Pointless rants? Hardly.
When a team.like the Reds can just drop $24M in pure Moosedung, %25 of the budget and none of these “rebuild”owners or “young genius Ivy Leaguers” can take advantage to make an offer to gain prospects or the Reds owner doesn’t care….says something….
And…I’ll write in all caps all I want. Funny how 5 guys jump all over my comment.
ISNT IT obvious, SEVEN YEARS LATER, no one in Detroit intends on winning a WS.
They intend on taking advantage of stupid people.like me.
AND YES. I coulda, shoulda, woulda run the Detroit Tigers…..
And don’t think that means I think any of you people are smart.
“Indeed, Mattingly has an immensely impressive baseball resume spanning 14 seasons as a player and another dozen as a manager.”
FIFY
Times have changed. The investors want expansion because they are making money hand over fist.
Teams never used to operate that way because fans had a lot more gumption to display their displeasure publicly.
Boston, kinda sorta remembers the way fans used to be…..everywhere else, fans are just pretty much docile and passive……
Owners and privileged Ivy League GMs have decided the public are just a bunch of pigeons and have no qualm with treating faithful customers as stupid fools