Phillies Notebook: Mattingly unfazed by report of his imminent demise
Plus, Tommy John, Cristopher Sánchez, and Alec Bohm's walk-up song
The Morning Call: https://tinyurl.com/u77ypa9y
Originally published Aug. 18, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Donnie Baseball has been around the block a time or two.
He played in New York for the winningest franchise in North American sports. He was a league MVP and a Yankee captain. This is his third managerial gig, and he won an NL Manager of the Year award with the team his Phillies just beat Monday night.
So when a USA Today report surfaced a day earlier stating that unless the Phillies reach or possibly even win the World Series this October, Alex Cora will be the manager next season — well, Mattingly didn’t bat an eye. In fact, he smiled and shook his head.
“It’s win or bust,” he said, chuckling. “You win or you don’t. None of that (report) frustrates me. I’m not worried about any of that kind of stuff. I’m trying to win a game tonight against Miami. I want the best thing for the Phillies. I’m not concerned about any of that.”
Mattingly, of course, took over as the Phillies’ interim manager after longtime friend Rob Thomson was let go on April 28. But he wasn’t the first choice of Dave Dombrowski, president of baseball operations; Cora was, as a full hire to be skipper here long-term.
Dombrowski and Cora have been close since their time together in Boston, which included a World Series title in 2018. But Cora turned down Dombrowski’s April offer with the Phillies, saying the timing wasn’t right for him and his family after he had just been fired by the Red Sox.
But according to the report by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the prospect of Cora joining the Phillies this offseason is another ballgame. Rumors have been swirling for months that he’s still Dombrowski’s target.
Meanwhile, Phillies owner John Middleton has been mulling an extension for Dombrowski, whose contract expires after the 2027 season.
Mattingly and Tommy John are two players who should probably be in the baseball Hall of Fame. They also happened to play together in the 1980s, when John was approaching the end of his career and Mattingly was rising in his.
John, who played for six teams from 1963 to 1989, is certainly best known for the reconstructive elbow surgery that bears his name and has saved countless ballplayers’ careers, particularly pitchers’. “Tommy John surgery” is as synonymous with baseball as pine tar, a curveball or the smell of freshly cut grass.
It was revolutionary in 1974, when John underwent the UCL procedure invented and performed by Dr. Frank Jobe in Los Angeles. But he also amassed a career record of 288-231 with a 3.34 ERA and 2,245 strikeouts over 26 years. (164 of his wins came after the surgery.)
John died of bladder cancer and other health complications Saturday at age 83, just a week after he issued a goodbye statement from hospice for missing the Yankees’ annual Old-Timers’ Day. He and Mattingly were 18 years apart in age, but both were Indiana kids — John from Terre Haute, Mattingly from Evansville.
“Tommy obviously was really a great person as far as the way he treated people,” Mattingly said. “Playing with him was interesting because it was obviously toward the end of his career, but just the competitiveness of him and the way he went about it.
“Tommy is one of those guys from Indiana. We always talked about Indiana. It’s close, actually — Terre Haute’s like 100 miles away (from Evansville). A lot of time in my youth is going there to play basketball tournaments, baseball tournaments, things like that.”
Mattingly went on to describe an event in spring training one year.
“I forgot, but I think it was Joe Hesketh pitching against (us),” he said. “Tommy was pitching, so he had to hit, and (Hesketh) was just shoving it on us the whole time. And Tommy gets up and hits a two-iron off the wall in left-center. And I’m like, ‘Geez!’ He made it look easy.”
John posted three 20-win seasons, was the 1977 NL Cy Young runner-up, pitched in three World Series, and was 6-3 with a 2.65 ERA in 14 postseason appearances. He played until he was 46, and his 288 victories are the most of any pitcher not in the Hall of Fame.
In leading the majors with 16 wins after beating the Marlins on Monday, Cristopher Sánchez also became the first Phillies left-hander with 16 victories since Cole Hamels in 2012. He said he’d love to reach the 20-win plateau, but it’s not how he approaches his starts.
“It would be an honor to be in a position to get to 20 wins, but my first thought and my first goal is just to throw as many quality innings as I can for the team, and to always leave the team in a good position to win games when I’m out there on the mound,” Sánchez said through interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “Then, after that, if that mark happens, I’ll take it of course. It would be an honor.”
Sánchez improved to 11-1 with a 1.42 ERA at Citizens Bank Park this year, tying him with Cliff Lee (2011) for second-most wins at CBP in a season. First is Roy Halladay with 12 in 2010.
NOTES: Mattingly said reliever Caleb Kilian (oblique strain) is “starting to feel better” but isn’t throwing yet. … Bryce Harper extended his streak of reaching base to 21 games. … Alec Bohm, for his at-bat in the third inning, used Chase Utley’s walk-up song, Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.” He grounded into a fielder’s choice, though later in the game he scored a run and drove in a run. Utley was enshrined on the Phillies Wall of Fame on Aug. 7.
Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.
