What the Phillies will and won't change under interim manager Don Mattingly

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There will be changes, Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said during his first day on the job, and they might not be visible to everyone. That implied alterations to what the Phillies do in their pregame preparations. It’s an older team, and that meant Rob Thomson had to find the proper balance between too much exertion in fundamental drills and saving it for the game. Sometimes, even if the former manager had wanted more pregame work, not every player was a participant. Mattingly is not interested in eyewash. He would just like cleaner baseball. “That’s the kind of thing we want people to see,” Mattingly said. “I don’t need you to see that, ‘Oh man, these guys are really working out.’ But we’re not playing any better. You work to get better. You prep like every team does, right? And it’s all meant to play good baseball.” Tuesday’s win was Mattingly’s 890th as a big-league manager. He has been here before. But it’s been almost four years since he managed, and there are many more tools at his disposal. The cut-rate Miami Marlins were not always at the forefront. “I didn’t really think that I was getting another chance, but there’s definitely lessons that you learn,” Mattingly said. “Little things. I was probably brought up in more of an old-school way. I think in Miami I should have included my staff more, made those guys more inclusive. I didn’t do that as much as I should have. That’s not a mistake I want to make again. “This game makes you evolve, right? If I’m going to sit here and go, ‘Oh, hey, I don’t believe in the numbers. All that analytic stuff.’ That’s just crazy thinking. That tells you that you’re not growing, you’re not evolving. That doesn’t mean that I go away from things that I believe in, also, about playing solid baseball. So I hope I’m a blend. … We’re going to take advantage of everything we can, and I’m going to try to just evolve and keep growing as I go.” One player who appears to gain from the managerial change is Brandon Marsh, whom the Phillies expected to play only against righty starters. Marsh has an .894 OPS against righties and a .418 OPS against lefties this season. Still, Mattingly seemed inclined to let Marsh run with it because of the quality of his at-bats. “We still want to use our guys,” Mattingly said. “We can’t just have guys sit in here all the time and never play and expect them to be OK when they do play. That being said, I want to try to put our best lineup out there that gives us the best chance to win. Brandon’s having great at-bats, and he’s having them against everybody. He basically pushes you to play him, right? If he’s hitting .100 and he’s not putting balls in play hard or not having quality at-bats, then he’s saying you should be playing the other guy.” As for second base, Mattingly acknowledged that Bryson Stott wants to be an everyday guy, but that a platoon will probably continue with Edmundo Sosa. The Phillies are expected to face a string of righty starters in the coming week, so this debate is tabled. Anthony Contreras had opted to drive himself and not ride the bus from Allentown, Pa., to Syracuse, N.Y., on Monday so he could leave a little later in the day. As the Triple-A Lehigh Valley manager went through the Pocono Mountains, the GPS on his phone malfunctioned. He pulled over. That’s when Luke Murton, the Phillies’ director of player development, called. He said he had Preston Mattingly, the general manager, on the other line. “Hey,” Mattingly said, “usually I’m calling you to promote a player. But I’m calling to promote you. You’re going to be coaching third base tomorrow night in the big leagues.” Contreras was confused. Mattingly said he could not tell Contreras what had happened. He just needed to turn around and be in Philadelphia on Tuesday morning. “I just kind of went numb,” Contreras said. Contreras, 42, played minor-league ball for nine seasons. He managed in the minors for another 11 years. He was the winningest manager in IronPigs history. He had achieved a dream, although it was bittersweet. Contreras came to the Phillies organization in 2022, and Thomson was one of the first people who helped him feel welcome. At a banquet that October during the postseason, Thomson acknowledged the integral role the Triple-A staff played in the club’s success. Contreras’ wife grabbed his arm. It meant so much to them. On Tuesday, not long after he had been fired, Thomson called Contreras to congratulate him. Conteras described it as a “whirlwind of emotions” because Thomson meant a lot to him. Contreras replaced Dusty Wathan, who was elevated to bench coach. Wathan had been the longest active tenured third-base coach in baseball, having held the job since the 2018 season. He became a steady presence there, rarely making a wrong read on when to send or hold a runner. “With Dusty, I felt like we’ve had really good baseball conversations, through spring and into the season,” Don Mattingly said. “I watch how he works, how he prepares. He’s managed a lot in the minor leagues, so I know he’s been there. A.C. is going to be fine at third. He’s been coaching third, you know, when you manage at Triple A. He is a good baseball guy. Our guys are going to get to know him, and he’s going to get to know our guys. We’re going to get better and better at that.” Contreras flashed some late stop signs in Tuesday’s game; Bryson Stott fell over while coming around third base at one point. Contreras acknowledged there will be a learning curve. The club’s analytics department provided Wathan with regular reports on his send/hold decisions at third base. The third-base coach has to be intimately familiar with the throwing arm of every opposing outfielder and the risk tolerance for sending certain runners based on game situations. “The process is a little bit different,” Contreras said. “There’s way more technology and resources that I’m not really used to, because on the managing side, I really didn’t have to dabble into that stuff too much. It’s more worrying about the staff and the players.” Mattingly, even in his first game as interim manager, asked Contreras to take the lineup card to home plate Tuesday night. The Phillies were playing the San Francisco Giants, the team that selected Contreras in the 2005 amateur draft out of San Jose State University. Pure coincidence. Family and friends at home in California were able to watch. “Just to walk out onto a big-league field and, you know, do it against the Giants,” Contreras said. “It was a good story.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms