Don Mattingly has uncertain future with Phillies with managerial job

The Philadelphia Phillies are in the middle of quite an incredible season, as they fired Rob Thomson after a 9-19 start, and have since been one of the better teams in baseball.

While they're still just a Wild Card team, they're within striking distance of the Atlanta Braves for the NL East lead. Interim manager Don Mattingly and the Phillies have been playing some great baseball, especially in August.

But as Karl Rasmussen of Sports Illustrated highlighted, the future of Mattingly with the Phillies is very much up in the air. He might not be with the team next season, even with how impressive this year has been since he took over.

Interim manager Don Mattingly has uncertain Phillies future

"Despite overseeing the Phillies' dramatic turnaround after the slow start to the season that ultimately cost Rob Thomson his job, there's no guarantee Mattingly, 65, will be the manager of the future in Philadelphia," Rasmussen writes.

Back in 2022, after firing Joe Girardi and having Thomson take over as interim manager, the Phillies went to the World Series and wound up keeping Thomson as the full-time manager.

But unless Mattingly can get them to the World Series, and maybe even win it all, it's very likely the Phillies will wind up moving on from Mattingly after the season ends.

Alex Cora, the former Boston Red Sox manager, has been strongly linked to the Phillies since he was fired by Boston a few days before the Phillies fired Thomson.

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Philadelphia also reportedly tried to bring in Cora as its interim manager, before the former Red Sox skipper declined and stayed away from MLB for the rest of the year.

While Mattingly's son, Preston Mattingly, is the general manager in Philadelphia, the Phillies under Dave Dombrowski are more likely to look elsewhere for their manager of the future instead of the baseball-lifer.

There is a chance that he's brought back, but it'd likely have to be a World Series ring for the Phillies to make such a decision. If nothing else, his future remains uncertain, and until the season ends, Mattingly's future with the Phillies is very much up in the air.

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