Former Toronto Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly has officially landed a new job

It became official Monday, with Philadelphia naming Mattingly is the new bench coach for 2026. He replaces Mike Calitri, who shifts into the club's major league field coordinator role.

For Jays fans, the sting is familiar, smart baseball people do not usually sit on the market long. Mattingly joined Toronto in November 2022 and spent three seasons as John Schneider's right-hand voice.

A couple weeks ago, Phillies president mentioned that the deal was almost closed between the team and Mattingly but there was no confirmation since then, until today.

If you're a Phillies fan, you can almost hear the calmer ninth-inning conversations already, because Mattingly has done this job recently and loudly.

The resume still pops even before you get to coaching. Mattingly hit .307 with 2,153 hits, 222 homers, and 1,099 RBIs, and he was a 19th-round pick in 1979, 493rd overall.

As a manager, he logged 1,839 games and went 889-950, good for a .483 winning percentage, and he won NL Manager of the Year in 2020. That's a lot of tough decisions, and a lot of scar tissue.

Fit matters here, too. Phillies manager Rob Thomson has history with Mattingly from their Yankees days, and the club has been chasing another deep October run since its 2022 pennant.

On the field, the bench coach is the in-game traffic cop, matchup talks, pinch-hit timing, defensive positioning, and keeping the plan steady when the game gets weird. Toronto leaned on Mattingly heavily, including on the offensive side, so the Jays now have a real void to fill.

The human angle is impossible to miss, too, because Mattingly now works in the same front office lane as his son, Phillies GM Preston Mattingly. Spring Training is the next checkpoint, and that first late-inning chess move will tell you plenty.

Source: TSN
Report: Mattingly joins Phillies after three seasons with Blue Jays