The Steinbrenner family’s top choice to follow Joe Torre will be the first person interviewed for the vacant Yankees’ manager’s job.
Don Mattingly will meet with Yankees brass this week in Tampa, Fla., to talk about replacing Torre.
“Nothing [has been] discussed other than a mid-week timetable,” said Mattingly’s representative, Ray Schulte.
Though the team will interview other candidates – Joe Girardi and Tony Pena have been told they are on the list – George Steinbrenner and sons Hal and Hank want Mattingly to be the next Yankees manager, according to Tampa whispers. Yet there is a possibility voices with more baseball experience could sway Steinbrenner III with solid arguments.
“It will be done together [as an organization],” GM Brian Cashman said when asked if the Steinbrenners will solely do the hiring of Torre’s successor.
The Boss may not be as involved as he used to be, but when it comes to who manages the Yankees, he hasn’t been shy about wanting Mattingly, and his sons agree.
It took Steinbrenner almost a decade to convince Mattingly to be the Yankees’ hitting coach. Finally, Mattingly agreed to return to uniform for the 2004 season. He was the hitting instructor for three years before being promoted to Torre’s bench coach this season. The move was made in order to prepare Mattingly to one day manage the Yankees.
Mattingly has said following Torre would be like “following John Wooden.” Hiring Mattingly to replace Torre is a brilliant PR move because Yankees fans, even the ones who had grown weary of Torre, will shortly revert back to calling him St. Joseph. Giving the job to Mattingly, one of the best and most popular Yankees ever, provides the Yankees a pass in the minds of many. Long before Torre became a Hall of Fame-caliber manager in pinstripes, Mattingly was “Donnie Baseball,” and for many seasons was the only reason to watch the Yankees.
However, Yankees icons aren’t immune to Steinbrenner’s wrath. And Hank seems to have a lot of his father’s impulsive traits. Bucky Dent, who hit one of the biggest home runs in Yankees history, was not only fired as manager by the Boss, he was axed in Boston where he hit the memorable 1978 playoff homer. Hall of Famer Yogi Berra was fired 16 games into the 1985 season shortly after the Boss said he was safe for the rest of the year. And it’s highly unlikely Ron Guidry, whose number hangs in Monument Park, is coming back for a third season as the pitching coach. Finally, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre left because he couldn’t work for George Steinbrenner any more.
“Nobody gets out of here alive,” Mattingly said when introduced as the hitting coach at Yankee Stadium.
Though it makes for great PR, will Mattingly the manager work in the clubhouse and in the dugout? Many point to Torre’s record (894-1,003) when he took over the Yankees and how talent made him a good manager, but he had managed 1,897 big league games before The Bronx. Mattingly has never managed at any level.
It’s important the Yankees give him a veteran bench coach who has seen everything in baseball 10 times. That could be Larry Bowa or Tony Pena, former major league mangers who coached third base and first base, respectively, this season. If that’s the case, one of the coaching lines could open for highly respected Rob Thomson (major league field coordinator).
Should Mattingly get the job and Guidry get the gate, it’s also important for the Yankees not to saddle Mattingly with a rookie pitching coach. Though Dave Eiland is respected for his Triple-A work with Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy, and did pitch for the Yankees, the combination of rookie manager and rookie pitching coach is often toxic. Eiland could replace Joe Kerrigan in the bullpen. With Gil Patterson, Nardi Contreras and Greg Pavlick, the Yankees have three former big league pitching coaches in their system.