MIAMI, FLORIDA - MAY 01: Interim manager Don Mattingly #8 of the Philadelphia Phillies conducts a pregame interview against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot park on May 01, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Calvin Hernandez/Getty Images)
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The Philadelphia Phillies responded well to a major change at the helm.
As their season careened out of control, the front office replaced long-time manager Rob Thomson with bench coach Don Mattingly and it seemed to provide a wake-up call to the roster, as the Phillies went on to win four straight games to open up the new era.
It didn’t appear that Mattingly made any significant changes to the lineup or player preparation before the team’s sudden turnaround, but franchise slugger Bryce Harper explained that the move might have offered the players a welcomed change of tone.
“I think we were all just kind of waiting for that ball to drop,” Harper said on Monday, after powering a win over the Miami Marlins, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury. “It was just kind of we need to get over this hump and get through this, whatever that looked like. So, as a team, we’re coming out and playing our game, understanding that we didn’t play well the first few weeks of the season. April is behind us so we’ve got to step forward and play better.”
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Though it’s hard to pinpoint any specific changes Mattingly has made so far, he is bringing some clear differences to the manager’s role compared to his predecessor. For one, Mattingly enjoyed a long and successful career in the major leagues as a first baseman for the New York Yankees, while Thomson never reached that level in his own playing career.
And it also seems that Mattingly picked up a thing or two from his time with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he reached last year’s World Series as the bench coach.
The new Phillies skipper has called for regular meetings among his entire staff and other members of the organization to examine everything that is and is not working, citing his time with the Blue Jays as a key reason.
“It’s something that they do in Toronto, and it’s something I like,” Mattingly explained, per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “It’s more that I liked it in Toronto. I thought it was a good thing. And you bring it with you. There’s things in your whole career, you bring with you. Somebody shows me something, I like it, it becomes mine. That’s what I do now.”
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The skipper explained that the meetings will happen every three weeks and that they will include “everybody in there,” including members of the front office. The goal appears to be distinguishing between anomalies and legitimate trends that need to be addressed during the marathon baseball season.
And, if it helped drive the Blue Jays to their postseason success last year, the Phillies should be embracing the new practice.
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