“The Phillies are pleased that Pete has accepted the position of manager for the 2016 season”, incoming team president Andy MacPhail said in a prepared statement released by the team, via Jake Kaplan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. It appears Miami interim manager Dan Jennings won’t get the same opportunity as the Marlins reportedly may try to land Dusty Baker as their next skipper.
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The Phillies could have completely folded midseason, but Mackanin used the All-Star break to help spark the team. That’s not great in terms of wins and losses, but the team seemed to play with much more effort under Mackanin’s leadership.
“That’s the only thing I can do, do things the way I know how to do them and let the chips fall where they may”.
“I wanted to get his input on the club”, MacPhail said. We’ve been scuffling to score runs, and the pitching – they haven’t done as well as we’d like.
Mackanin took over as interim manager on June 26 after Ryne Sandberg stepped down. He is the 53rd manager in the 133-year history of the Phillies franchise.
This will be the first time in Mackanin’s career that he’s been appointed as the full-time manager, despite having two previous stints in an interim capacity.
To be able to reach this moment of finally leading a team of his own, then sweep the rug out from under him after one season of what projects to be another sub-.500 team is just unfair. It’s uncertain whether he’ll return to his former position of general manager.
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Leading up to the announcement, both Jon Heyman of CBS Sports and Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly suggested that Mackanin had won the clubhouse over and was likely to be named the team’s manager at some point. When I was younger I would have. “That being the case, I know for a fact they’re not going to throw a lineup on my desk and make me use that lineup”.
