Being a nice guy only took Mackanin so far
PHILADELPHIA » Pete Mackanin is a rare guy in sports, an even more unusual personality for major league baseball ... because he really is a nice guy.
If that goes down as Mackanin’s managerial legacy, however, it is simply unfair. For every self-depracating joke and pleasant greeting, Mackanin had a word of advice or several for any and every player, an anecdote or analytical answer for every questioner, and an honest smile for everyone.
He also made a decision for every situation, and clearly not all of them turned out to be correct. Such is the fate of a manager, a fate made ever shakier when your club goes through two seasons like the Phillies just did with more on-field mistakes than even a weak-hitting, rebuilding crew should ever make.
That was more apparent on the basepaths than anywhere
else; Rhys Hoskins inexplicably getting caught in a rundown off second in the second inning Sunday just the latest Phillies baserunning gaffe to take them out of an inning.
That they would go on to a 11-0 victory in this season finale that may or may not be Mackanin’s last game as an MLB manager was a testament to two truths; No. 1: In the second half of this season with several of their top-notch prospects joining the big club, the Phillies overall played a much better brand of baseball. And No. 2: the Mets stink.
All of which doesn’t mean Mackanin was the right guy for his job going into next year. It’s a harsh business, but it is just that, one in which honesty, ethics and good will are always going to be under-valued and overshadowed.
Either Matt Klentak, or Matt’s Klentak’s bosses who prefer to leave the public explanations to him, determined keeping Mackanin in the manager’s office and the same staff of coaches around wasn’t the best way to expedite the progress of the Phillies’ promoted prospects.
There are, of course, those who disagree. Not surprisingly, one of them is 71-year-old organizational icon Larry Bowa, who not only repeated Friday “Pete did a great job,” he also spent a lot of face time with the media insisting he still wants a job with the Phillies.
But by the time November rolls around it will likely become clear that this season’s story will end with a cleaned-out house. There are only so many “special assistant to the general manager” kind of jobs available.
Former GM and prez Pat Gillick and ex-manager Charlie Manuel are still that, though they are titled as “senior advisors.” And now under the terms of his new contract with Klentak, Mackanin joins the “special assistant” club, and in his case the title apparently means working out of your home under terms of a multi-year contract that calls for the occasional calls to Klentak, a bunch of visits to Diamondbacks baseball games to look at visiting players and minimal travel except for the
occasional pressing of fan flesh at public events back in Philly and elsewhere.
If that sounds unusual, just know that Mackanin will be the fifth “special assistant” on the front office payroll now, and that doesn’t include those aforementioned two senior citizens wearing 2008 World Series rings.
Regardless, it’s incumbent on not only Klentak but on MacPhail and whoever else owner John Middleton wants to be involved to offer an opinion on the right manager for what could be a semi-contending team next season.
Of course, in a weak free agent market year and with a bunch of teams looking for pitching help, this Phillies collection of young players on the rise will probably enjoy fast success if the GM somehow finds a way to bring in two inningeating veteran pitchers and somehow find a way to keep them healthy past the first month of the season.
Whether the new manager is Dusty Wathan, who managed several of these young Phillies guns in the minors, or another up-and-coming managerial prospect such as Houston bench coach Alex Cora, 41, Dodgers front office guy Gabe Kapler, 42, or Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez, an older (53) but much more overdue candidate, Klentak and Co. will be expecting them to get inside enough heads that many of those mistakes of the past couple of seasons aren’t repeated.
And if a little butt is kicked along the way ... all the better.
(Yeah, I know, that doesn’t happen in baseball these days).
There is also ousted Detroit manager Brad Ausmus or even 61-yearold Buck Showalter, who might want to rejoin with his old boss MacPhail in Philly if he could somehow be allowed out of his last contract year in Baltimore.
To me, Wathan, 44, still makes more sense to assume the Phillies’ managerial reins than anyone else, though MacPhail and Klentak might want to bring him in as a bench coach for a year or two under a more veteran bench boss.
Either way, it will all be hashed out over the next several weeks, presumably before the general managers meetings kick off in Orlando Nov. 13.
Ex-Phillies Bowa, Juan Samuel, Mickey Morandini and Matt Stairs, all part of the coaching crew declared “free agents” as of Monday morning according to Klentak, may or may not still be looking for work by then.
Perhaps they’ll still be feeling the effects of a drastic change they should have seen coming, one that was obscured by a .500ish second half for a lot of people.
But not by their front office overseers.
Doesn’t mean they didn’t like the guys they either let go or promoted to their home offices. Hard not to...
“At least I have a contract for the next few years, and I feel bad for them,” Mackanin said of his coaches. “I’ve been there before. It’s not a good feeling. You have to start making connections. You try to make connections as quickly as possible because teams are in a decision-making time of the season, (and) they have to decide who’s coming back and who’s not. There’s going to be openings. You want to get your name out there.
“I look back at my career and I felt this was the best thing I could ever have done in my life. If you’re not tough enough to go through the ups and downs, it’s going to be tough and you are going to be miserable. You’ve just got to be a fighter and keep pushing.”