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 dropped their series against the Cincinnati Reds this week, but it was just the first series loss since Don Mattingly took over the team.
After parting ways with long-time skipper Rob Thomson, the Phillies have surged under Mattingly and seem poised to make another run at the postseason. While the new manager hasn’t made any significant personnel changes, it seems like his perspective as a long-time star player for the New York Yankees is aiding his approach with the players.
“It might give you some credibility that you’ve kind of been there and did some things,” Mattingly said of how his own playing experience factors into his role as a manager, according to Destiny Lugardo of Phillies Nation. “At the end of the day, it’s how you handle things is really what’s going to get me more across.”
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While Thomson never reached the major leagues, Mattingly was a six-time All-Star, an MVP, a nine-time Gold Glove Award winner and a three-time Silver Slugger Award winner. Mattingly also won an American League batting title in his first full season with the Yankees, in 1984, barely edging out star teammate Dave Winfield.
Now, with Mattingly leading a Phillies turnaround and Winfield providing some updates on his tenure with the Yankees in a new book, the former Yankees teammates revisited their time together.
“Donnie, he was coming to work just doing his thing,” Winfield told Claire Smith for The Philadelphia Inquirer this week. “People should know that there’s never been any ax to grind with Donnie, for sure. I’m happy for him, definitely.”
Though Mattingly stole the batting title from Winfield on the last day of that 1984 season, which was his first as a full-time big leaguer, it seems like Winfield had bigger things to worry about at the time. Though details were not divulged until a public scandal resulted in a ban for Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Winfield was embroiled in some significant tensions with the team.
“What is known now is that while battling for a batting title in an otherwise lost season, Winfield had a handicap: The secret, increasingly harsh war of attrition being waged against him by Steinbrenner,” Smith wrote.
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As later became public record, Steinbrenner was bitter about Winfield’s contract with the Yankees and hired a gambler to investigate him privately, with plenty of behind-the-scenes animosity in between. But Mattingly has now shared that the tension was so well hidden, during the 1984 season at least, that he never noticed it.
“As a young player, first year in the big leagues, all you’re doing is playing,” Mattingly told Smith. “And for me, having fun. I was having a good year, proving to people I can hit and I can play and trying to establish myself. I had nothing to lose.”
Despite emerging as a key player for the Yankees as that scandal between Winfield and Steinbrenner developed, Mattingly’s accomplishments on the field persist as his primary legacy from that time. And that seems to be a key to his success so far with the Phillies’ players, though his experiences with some scandalous Yankees history likely help him as well.