MIAMI, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Teruaki Sato #7 of Team Japan looks on during a World Baseball Classic workout day at loanDepot park on March 12, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Gene Wang - Capture At Media/Getty Images)
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The Philadelphia Phillies made a drastic move at the top and it seems to have paid off.
In the midst of a 9-19 start to the year and a negative-54 run differential, the Phillies fired long-time manager Rob Thomson and replaced him with bench coach Don Mattingly. Since then, the team has surged back to a neutral record and Mattingly has embraced the chance to work more directly alongside his son, Preston Mattingly, who is the Phillies’ general manager.
“I like working with him,” Don Mattingly said of working with Preston, per The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber. “Because you think about it, we’ve been in different places fighting for a dream, right? And now we’re together fighting for our dream. It’s a lot better.”
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And as the elder Mattingly reverses the team’s poor start to open up his run at the helm, Preston Mattingly has been scouting the next generation of Phillies stars. Most recently, that meant traveling to Japan to scout third baseman Teruaki Sato of the Hanshin Tigers.
The 27-year-old Sato is slashing a stellar .359/.443/.718 for the Tigers after a strong performance for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic. As successful Nippon Professional Baseball position players like Kazuma Okamoto and Seiya Suzuki enjoy success in the big leagues, the Phillies are interested in the Japanese star as third baseman Alec Bohm heads toward free agency.
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“We're interested in him, and I think all the MLB teams will be keeping an eye on him,” Preston Mattingly said of his visit to see Sato, according to a translated report from Sports Nippon. “For the past few days, I've been really looking forward to checking out every aspect of his play. I wanted to see everything. I wanted to see firsthand how he interacts with his teammates, how he moves on the field, his fielding, and how he uses his body during batting practice."
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If the Phillies ultimately let Bohm walk for a change of scenery before next year, they could try to sign the next Japanese star to join the big leagues. In any case, with his father now driving a turnaround in the standings, Preston Mattingly’s optimism about Sato should carry some weight.
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