 As Don Mattingly considers managerial opportunities with other clubs he's faced with an interesting dilemma. Let's take a look at where Donny has been and what he's likely to do.
Don Mattingly, known by Yankee fans as Donnie Baseball, is a former captain of the Yankees who later became a coach. Along with his excellent hitting and slick skills at first base, Mattingly played with intensity unmatched by most players in the league. In his 12 full seasons in the majors, Mattingly won one M.V.P. award, a batting title, and nine Glove Gloves. But he never won or played in a World Series, as the Yankees played in the Series the year before he first played for the major league team, and won a title the year after he left. In his only playoff appearance, during his final season in 1995, he hit .417.
It didn't take long after he arrived in the big leagues for Mattingly to become a legend among Yankee fans. In 1984, his first full season in the majors, Mattingly won a batting title, hitting .343. The next season, he won the M.V.P. award and won his first Gold Glove. During his first six full seasons, from 1984-89, he batted .327 and averaged nearly 27 home runs a year. Many players and coaches considered him to be the baseball's best overall player in the mid- and late-1980s.
Chronic back problems drastically reduced Mattingly's production during his final six seasons, when he hit .286 and averaged fewer than 10 home runs a year. Still, he was named team captain in 1991, and in 1997, he became the 14th player in club history to have his number retired. He has fallen far short of getting the votes necessary for entry into the Hall of Fame.
After eight years of retirement, a call from Yankee owner George Steinbrenner brought Mattingly from his farm in Evansville, Ind., to become the team's hitting coach. Mattingly has said that he'd like to become the Yankees manager some day, and in 2007, he worked as Torre's bench coach, a job that is often a stepping stone to a manager's position.
When Joe Torre left for LA in 2008, it was assumed that Mattingly would get the Yankees managerial job. He was a finalist in the interview process along with Tony Pena and Joe Girardi however the Yankees decided to go with Girardi. Pena stayed on as Yankees bench coach and a scored Mattingly, who was asked to stay, went to LA with Torre.
It's been widely reported that when Torre was hired he was asked to place his successor on his staff so that there would be continuity when he left. The universal view was that when Torre signed his three $13,000,000 contract that this would be his last managerial stint. Torre chose Don Mattingly to be that guy. He is in fact the heir apparent or manager in waiting.
So now what? Joe Torre has one more year left and MLB teams are knocking on Donny's door. During the playoffs Mattingly has already phone interviewed for the Cleveland Indians job and now that the Dodgers are out of the playoffs he will be interviewing for the Washington Nationals job. The Astros are apparently interested in him as well.
No one disputes that if he waited one more year for the Dodgers job to open up that he would end up with the best job. Not even Donnie Baseball himself would dispute that. The problem with that - from Mattingly's perspective - is the assumption that Torre will actually call it quits. What if Torre decides he wants to keep managing? Players and coaches change their mind all the time. The itch to give it up is often too much. Think about it, you could name ten players or coaches in sports off the top of your head that have retired and realize that they miss it so much that the unretired and come back?
It does seem that any rumblings of franchise instability over the pending divorce of owner Frank McCourt were settled to some degree on Tuesday when general manager Ned Colletti was signed to a multiyear extension. So that's no longer an issue. With that being the case, you might think that Mattingly might want to wait for a chance in L.A., depending of course on what advice he gets from Torre.
However, when asked about waiting for the Dodgers job to open up, here's what Mattingly has said.
During the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals, when asked if he would entertain job offers outside Los Angeles, Mattingly said the following:
"Oh yeah, no question. It's not something I really want to deal with at this time because my focus is here on the team right now. But there's no question I want to manage. I hope it happens sooner rather than later, but the more you're around this game as a coach, I feel, the more you learn.''
During the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies, when asked basically the same question he replied in an even more indicative way of what he's thinking.
"When the opportunity knocks [to manage], you knock the door down."
At the moment, Mattingly is among four serious contenders vying to be the next Indians manager in a group that includes Bobby Valentine, Manny Acta and Torey Lovullo.
The Nationals' search appears to be wide open, with names like Bobby Valentine and Bob Melvin being thrown around. You would think that that figures to be a less attractive option with Washington coming off a 103-loss season and showing little direction other than the signing of top pick Stephen Strasburg. But then again, when asked about that job Mattingly pointed out that he thought the Nationals had some good young pitchers citing Jordan Zimmerman, John Lannan and Strasburg.
The Astros job is out there too.
Reading between the lines by the comments he's made it certainly appears that Mattingly wants to manage and manage now. Short of getting something in writing that the Dodgers team is his to manage in 2011, I don't see how he possibly stays. - Paul Leume
Paul Leume is a MLB columnist from Montreal, Canada. Paul, a one-time beat writer covering the Montreal Expos for the Montreal Gazette is a proud grandfather of 3 girls and now spends his time offering his thoughts and prospective on Major League Baseball on a variety of blogs and websites throughout Al Gore's internet.
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