The Phillies announced today that Pete Mackanin will not return to manage the club in 2018. Rather, Mackanin has agreed to a contract extension to join the front office and serve as a special assistant to general manager Matt Klentak. Mackanin will finish out the current season as the Phillies’ skipper.
The news comes as somewhat of a surprise, as it was only May 11 that the Phillies gave Mackanin a vote of confidence by extending his managerial contract through the 2018 campaign (with a club option for the 2019 season). Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that a friend of Mackanin’s described him as “shocked” to receive the news that he won’t be returning to his post next season.
Beyond that, the Phillies’ play has improved substantially with the second-half arrivals of Rhys Hoskins, Nick Williams and Jorge Alfaro, among others. The Phillies entered the break with a record of 29-58 but have since played at a near-.500 clip. Overall, the Phillies played at a 172-237 pace under Mackanin, though he was tasked with overseeing a clearly rebuilding club that was never expected to win many games.
Mackanin, 66, spent parts of nine seasons as a Major League infielder, including two with the Phillies, and had a pair of half-season stints as a big league skipper prior to taking on that role with the Phillies. He’s served in various capacities over the life of his post-playing career, including spending time as a third base coach, a bench coach, a minor league manager and a Major League scout. The Phillies didn’t offer any specific details of what his new role will entail beyond the fact that he received a contract extension upon taking the position.
Given that, it seems clear that the Phillies still value Mackanin’s input and feel that his presence can be beneficial to the organization. However, Klentak and team president Andy MacPhail were not with the organization when Mackanin was named manager back in 2015, and they’ll now have the opportunity to bring in their own manager.
The Philadelphia vacancy creates two openings for new skippers around the league, as the Tigers have already announced that Brad Ausmus will not return as the manager in 2018. A third opening seems all but certain to emerge in the coming days, as multiple reports out of New York have indicated that Terry Collins is extremely unlikely to return as the Mets’ manager in 2018.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I wonder if either of Terry Collins or Brad Ausmus will land one of the available jobs in Philly, Detroit for Collins and Philly and New York for Ausmus
Why? Both are tired retreads.
Terry Collins is untouchable and toxic right now.
-Insert Dusty Wathan here-
The MLB is trying to turn into the NFL with all these coach firings. Not a good look
because three teams who drastically underperformed fired their managers? this isn’t something new
I don’t think anybody would say the 2017 Phillies “drastically underperformed.” It’s hard to do anything when your rotation is out-all-year Clay Buchholz, reversion-to-the-mean Hellickson, and a stable of injured/rookie guys under the age of 25.
Throw in Saunders being junk on an expensive contract, Joseph being unable to replicate his 2016 (as underwhelming as it was), and Freddy Galvis’ career year at the plate (.700 OPS), plus injuries to Altherr and Herrera, and I’m honestly pretty surprised they were able to tread water as well as they were.
They won 71 last year, so yes, 64 wins with 3 games to go is under performing.
considering they had a much more talented roster in 2017, and are likely to finish 5-7 games worse than last year, yeah, i’d say they underperformed
In fairness, they were a horrific 29-58 at the All Star break. The second half has been a lot better at 35-37. It’s not like they were expected to be a playoff contender.
Yes, Ryan Howard and his .196 average and their closer with a 4.85 ERA–those ’16 Phillies were loaded with talent.
$56 million lit on fire by the F.O. and Pete gets fired.
you clearly don’t understand how rebuilding works
Considering I’ve been a Brewers fan all my life, I know exactly how rebuilding works.
Its not a good look that people have standards? Asmus and Collins have both overstayed their welcome by far. Heaven forbid you fire someone.
Very surprising. Not sure what to make of the move. Phils must have someone specific in mind to manage the team.
They’re bringing back Ryan Howard
My guess is it’s either Wathan or Raul Ibanez.
Good for him!! Congrats.
I like this a lot. Unfortunately there were just a lot of little thing with him that just added up. Good dude though, happy he’s sticking around in an alternative capacity.
Please, Phillies!!! Make an offer to Peter Angelos for Buck Showalter that they can’t refuse!
Im good with the former O’s staff member that we got already.
I would rate Showalter as two to three orders of magnitude better than MacPhail.
MacPhail/Klentek are more of the same for the Phillies, which clearly demonstrates the problem to be the ownership. John Middleton enthusiastically hired MacPhail, practically labeled him a genius in public.
There are no words.
why dont you like Buck…
Because….and I want to help the Phillies.
MacPhail/Klentek try to deflect their failure to secure the 1st pick and the disturbingly empty farm system onto the manager.
Never saw this team not trying to win every game. They all played hard for Pete – often too much so for my liking – and the position players other than Franco all showed growth.
I’ll take this moment to say how much I hated and loathed the Phillies draft this year. I feel like they flushed this years MLB Draft down the toilet. THAT is what needs to be addressed, that and John Middleton’s dislike of Japanese baseball talent.
It is inexcusable that a team like the Phillies have shown zero interest in Shohei Otani.
Why waste your time on Otani if there is 0 chance he would come here?
Plus it doesn’t matter if everyone played hard for Pete if they didn’t play well. Literally the only person who exceeded expectations this year was Adam Morgan and Aaron Altherr.
Yes, I’m sure Middleton hates japanese players considering the 2008 team has 2 of them
Pretty sure Nola exceeded expectations, once he came back from injury. Cesar also proved that 2016 wasn’t an anomaly, and Luis Garcia had a tremendous year given his history.
Not that any of that is necessarily Mackanin’s fault, but it’s not true that only Morgan and Altherr had surprisingly good years.
The Phillies can show all the interest in the world in Otani, he’s not signing in Philly. He wants to hit too, meaning he’ll go to an AL team where he can DH. No team in their right mind is going to allow a front-line starting pitcher to take the field on the days when he’s not pitching.
How are the Iggles doin’?
Why are you here instead of on an Eagles board?
Why would I be on the Eagles board? I’m a Phillies fan first, Eagles second. I comment here all the time.
Empty farm system? They have one of the best farm systems in the MLB. Why do you think everyone talks about how scary the Phillies will be in 2019 or 2020?
MLB.com ranked them with the game’s No. 7 farm system midseason. Baseball America is putting out league-by-league prospect rankings, and the Phillies have placed five in the top 20 of the Florida State League, three in the South Atlantic League (including Sixto Sanchez at No. 1) and three in the International League.
Maybe pointing this out is completely in vain, since the only things I’ve seen you post for the better part of three months are tirades against the Phillies’ supposed ineptitude, but calling their farm system empty is an interesting take.
Where is the Phillies Carlos Correa?
What player below triple-A looks like he has a real chance to be voted onto three All-Star teams?
This rebuild stinks. The Dodgers have been winning their division every year the Phillies have admitted to be rebuilding and most of those rating farm systems have had the Dodgers rated higher than the Phillies.
EPIC FAIL
E P I C
Sir.
you really dont get it, do you?
Yep. In vain. Carry on, haha.
This is the same bonehead that rants against Middleton to the point of being psychotic. In another of his posts he ridiculed Tommy Joseph for his concussion issues. Class act.
Why Carlos Correa? And why below Triple-A? Sure Carlos Correa is an above average offensive shortstop, but he one of the worst defensive shortstops in baseball. Meanwhile, J.P. Crawford is an average to above average offensive shortstop and a gold glove caliber defender. Plus, you ignore everyone like Herrera and Hoskins.
Oh, boy…here we go. Another rant by CP.
Wow, gotta be awful news for Mackanin. Luckily he has a contract and money coming in for next year. These “special assistants” to general managers mainly just do community appearances, sign autographs, and take pictures with the fans. Probably not Mac’s first choice going forward.
Pete’s a good Guy and a Company man !
But he not the Guy to take the young up the Next Step !
Quick….. somebody interview Bryce Harper and ask who his favorite manager is!
If you meet his price Bryce would be fine with you as his manager. If you won’t pay him he’s not even interested in who the manager is.
David Price said just that about the Cubs and John Maddon.
Joe Maddon
Harper won’t sign here, but Trout definitely will when he hits free agency. He grew up a Phillies fan and tweets about them all the time.
Harper and Machado will be Phillies in 2019.
You can bet the house on it.
How much is your house worth? I might be willing to take that bet
I wonder if bringing back Bowa for a 2nd stint as Phils manager is a consideration
ROFLOL!
Bowa would be hilarious. The players publicly quit on him last time lobbying for someone else.
Maybe Charlie, he’s still around.
Manuel or Hustle? 😉
He did a wonderful job as manager for this team, really wish he could’ve stuck around for the future of this club. Best of luck Pete!
I wonder who will replace him, Nevin? Hopefully not Ausmus, maybe we could give Sandburg another go (sarcasm)
Who from the Angels will Klentak bring in? My crazy prediction would be Scioscia himself.
I like Scioscia as a dark-horse candidate too.
Jim thome would be a great consideration
I wonder if Chase Utley would like to manage some day. Would love to see him back with the Phils.
Where is all the news on Ausmus? I’m not seeing any reports anywhere.
Never mind, apparently this is old news and I was sleeping.
My top 3 candidates to bring in would be Dusty Wathan, Joe McEwing, and Dave Martinez. I would be fine with any one of them for next year.