Dodgers and Don Mattingly Break Up

23 Oct, 2015

Don Mattingly and the Los Angeles Dodgers stuck to their scripts Thursday, insisting they agreed to a mutual parting of the ways while never revealing the exact reason he won’t return as manager.

Like a publicist announcing the demise of a Hollywood marriage, the parties insisted the split was amicable. Mattingly even suggested he “will be friends like forever” with his former bosses.

“I don’t really want to get into details of our conversations. They were good conversations, they were open and they were honest,” Mattingly said by phone from his offseason home in Evansville, Indiana. “It just became evident that this was the best thing for both parties.”

At Dodger Stadium, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi parroted the same vacuous message.

“It was kind of organic,” Friedman said. “It just kind of crystalized that is something that potentially made a lot of sense.”

Before they came to that conclusion, the parties discussed extending Mattingly’s contract beyond next year, its final season.

“When we started on Friday we expected him to be our manager in 2016,” Friedman said. “I think that was his thought process, also.”

But something clearly changed as the discussions wore on. Exactly what it was neither side would specify.

“It came back to this was the right time and right thing,” Mattingly said. “Andrew, Farhan and Josh (Byrnes) are great guys and they’re going to do great things. The organization is in great shape.”

Los Angeles was 446-363 in five years under Mattingly, finishing with a winning record in every season and claiming the last three NL West titles. But the Dodgers have not reached the World Series since winning the championship in 1988.

The 54-year-old former Yankees star ranks sixth in wins among Dodgers managers.

Los Angeles reached the postseason in three straight years for the first time but the Dodgers won just one series, beating Atlanta in the Division Series two years ago, while losing three.

Mattingly said he still wants to manage. His name surfaced last month for the Miami Marlins’ opening. There also are openings in San Diego, Seattle and Washington.

AP

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