Despite a managerial change, Phillies' pursuit of Alex Cora reportedly continues, with Don Mattingly leading the team on an interim basis.
The Philadelphia Phillies named Don Mattingly their interim manager after firing Rob Thomson on Tuesday.
The Phillies are 9-19 and tied with the New York Mets for last place in the National League East. They are 10.5 games back from the Atlanta Braves for first place in the division with three days remaining until the start of May.
Last week, Philadelphia publicly backed Thomson, but started going through backchannels to try and nab Alex Cora as Thomson's replacement. Per Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Cora turned down the job to be with family.
ESPN's Buster Olney explained the Phillies' decision to fire Thomson. He believes Cora's firing from the Red Sox likely made Phillies president Dave Dombrowski reassess their situation.
Olney thinks it's telling that the Phillies are slapping the "interim" tag on Mattingly. He suggests Philadelphia will try to persuade Cora to save them before the season is over.
"Don Mattingly has 12 years managing in the big leagues and yet he was given an 'interim' tag by Philadelphia, which tells you that the light is still on for Cora -- whether it be in a month, in two months, or going into the 2027 season," Olney wrote.
Olney does believe the Phillies will play better under Mattlingly than they did under Thomson. Whether that's enough to save his job remains to be seen.
"They'll play better; according to FanGraphs, their chances for making the playoffs are still around 40%, which makes sense given the quality of their starting pitching --Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Andrew Painter, and now Zack Wheeler is back.
"Mattingly is very similar to Thomson in personality - even-keeled, experienced, never one to overreact. I don't think the players will feel much of a difference."
Mattingly has every reason in the world to manage good enough to get the interim tag taken off.
However, Dombrowski has reason to believe he can land Cora. He has a close relationship with the manager who won the World Series with the Red Sox in 2018.
Cora would be a big get for the Phillies, but Mattingly is the guy until then.