The Los Angeles Dodgers have announced they have parted ways with manager Don Mattingly. Mattingly spent five seasons as the manager of the Dodgers. He guided the team to a winning record in every season, including a career coaching high 94 wins in the 2014 season. Donnie Baseball has been a household baseball name since he was called up by the Yankees in the 1982 season. The lefty first baseman spent his entire 14 year playing career was with the Yankees.
mattingly and the dodgers have what’s described as a “mutual parting.” FO treated him well, long-term support wasnt strong
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) October 22, 2015
As the Yankees first baseman from 1982 through 1995, he was a career .307 batter including 222 home runs and drove in over 1,000 runs during his storied career. As a six-time All-Star and nine time Gold Glove Award winning first baseman, Mattingly also won the 1985 American League MVP.
The news of Mattingly does not come as a surprise to most people, as the rumors have been swirling around for the past several years Mattingly did not have long-term support from the team. The Dodgers succeeded under the five year manager, winning 446 games and losing 363. The biggest knock against Mattingly was the postseason performance of his ball clubs as they went just 8-11 during his five year career, including a 2-3 mark this year against the New York Mets in the NLDS.
“The Hit Man” was a part of Joe Torre‘s staff with the Yankees starting in 2004 and lasted until 2008 when Torre left to become the Manager of the Dodgers. Mattingly followed suit and eventually succeeded Torre as the manager in 2011.
Before he became the hitting coach for the Yankees, Mattingly served as a special instructor during Yankees’ spring training games from 1997 through 2003 and then took over the hitting coach duties in 2004. Under Donnie Baseball, the Yankees set an all-time franchise record with 242 home runs in the 2004 season. He then took over the bench coach duties in 2006, replacing Lee Mazzilli.
Once the 2007 season wrapped up, Mattingly was a finalist for the vacant head coaching job after Torre left for the Dodgers. The Yankees ultimately chose current head coach Joe Girardi for the job and Mattingly followed Torre to LA.
After the Yankees season ended this year, the team fired Jeff Pentland after just one season, leaving a vacant hitting coach position for the Bombers. Before Pentland, Kevin Long was the teams hitting coach for eight seasons.
There has been no confirmed interest by the Bronx Bombers to reunite with the former Yankees Star, and according to Joel Sherman Mattingly does not have any interest in being a hitting coach, as he wants to continue to serve as a manger of a team.
Told Mattingly wants to only pursue managing. #Marlins, maybe #Nationals possible. So that means no did #Yankees hit coach opening
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) October 22, 2015
Mattingly had one year remaining on his contract before both sides parted ways.
