Manuel returns to Phillies dugout
Former manager replaces Mallee as hitting coach
PHILADELPHIA >> Managerial icon Charlie Manuel, who seemed to be more visible of late around Citizens Bank Park in his role as special advisor to Phillies general manager Matt Klentak, is about to take on a role he last worked at 20 years ago in Cleveland.
Manuel, 75, has been appointed as the Phillies’ hitting coach for the remainder of the 2019 season. He replaces John Mallee, who was not allowed to finish his second season on manager Gabe Kapler’s staff presumably because the Phillies, having invested nearly a halfbillion dollars in contract money to vastly upgrade their lineup, have lagged offensively for much of the year.
They rank in the middle or lower ranks of most team hitting categories in the National League.
Manuel, a home run hitting American baseball hero in Japan who also played in the minors and parts of six major league seasons with the Twins and Dodgers, really made his name as a hitting coach in Cleveland before taking over as the Indians manager in 2000.
The Indians led the American League in runs three times during his two tenures as hitting coach there in the late 1980s and 1990s, and in managing the team from 2000-02, the Indians won one Central Division title.
Just as he did while a player in Japan, however, Manuel got into
it with the Indians over a contract dispute, and was summarily fired in July 2002. He came to the Phillies shortly thereafter as a special assistant to general manager Ed Wade, and took over for Larry Bowa as manager in 2004. The two now are close.
Manuel would oversee a long-awaited return to the playoffs in 2007, and the Phillies and Manuel finally won it all in 2008. They returned to the World Series in 2009, losing to the Yankees.
During Manuel’s tenure the Phillies won five consecutive National League East titles. He was replaced by Ryne Sandberg halfway through the 2013 season as manager, but stayed on as a consultant to the front office and most recently as one of Klentak’s advisors along with Bowa.
Just two weekends ago as the Phillies’ 2009 team was being honored, Manuel spent much time with the media, doing as he often does — talking hitting. Analytics might not be his thing as it was with Mallee, but Manuel made clear that he was studying launch angles long before it was in vogue.
To Charlie, that had more to do with a player’s footwork during a swing than anything. Considering he’s been a spring training instructor in recent years with the current Phillies, it’s likely he won’t have much trouble talking the art of hitting with them now in one of the club’s most important coaching roles.
Mallee, 50, majored in kinesiology at the University of Illinois and was a Phillies farmhand in the early 1990s. He got into coaching with Florida and enjoyed success with the Chicago Cubs as hitting coach from 2015-17, during which they won a World Series in 2016.