For those who don’t have at least 30% of their brain power devoted to vast swathes of mostly useless Simpsons knowledge, there is an episode that features a flashback to Ned Flanders parents visiting a psychiatrist to try and get help for their young son’s anger issues. The two beatniks exasperately exclaim “we’ve tried nothing, and we’re all out of ideas!” when asked what they’ve done to try and wrangle their son.
Why am I telling you about this right now? Well, my brain reacts to most news in Simpsons
references, and this was the first thing I thought of when reading that after being spurned by Alex Cora for the second time in six months, the Phillies reportedly may go back to Don Mattingly at manager.
It’s clear that Cora was Dave Dombrowski’s top choice. He was the one who the Phillies president of baseball operations called before the firing of Rob Thomson was even made official. The logic behind Dombrowski’s fixation with Cora is easy to see even if you may not agree with it. Cora served as manager under Dombrowski in Boston when the pair won the World Series in 2018. Therefore, it’s obvious why the former reported ringleader of the Astros cheating scandal would be Dombrowski’s top choice. However, Cora had just been fired by the Red Sox at the time and declined the job, citing a desire to spend the rest of 2026 with his family and collect the paycheck the Red Sox still owed him. The Phillies went on with firing Thomson anyway and let interim manager Don Mattingly take over in his stead.
Mattingly oversaw the Phillies resurrection of their season after a 9-19 start, going 79-55 under his watch and capturing the third NL Wild Card spot. However, by the time the team was unceremoniously bounced out of the postseason, it had become abundantly clear that Mattingly was in practice a clear downgrade from Thomson. His biggest offense was his overworking of the bullpen which helped pour gasoline on the fire of an already subpar unit. Multiple relievers saw drops in velocity later in the year and some even suffered injuries likely related to being overworked, with Jonathan Bowlan being exhibit A.
The Phillies and Dombrowski seemed to agree that Mattingly wasn’t a good choice for permanent manager, as despite the team’s resurgence they never really considered removing the interim tag and then they once again tried to hire Cora. Now that he’s spurned them yet again, it seems as if they’ve thrown up their hands in the same manner of Ned Flanders’ parents and are turning back towards Mattingly.
Dave Dombrowski is going to be a Hall of Famer. You may be tired of hearing about that fact, but it is indeed a fact. However, another fact is that he has not shown any creativity or desire for new ideas when it comes to trying to fix the Phillies problems. Under Dombrowski, the Phillies have seen a near unprecedented level of continuity in their roster, electing to run back mostly the same roster for three straight years despite now three straight early postseason exits. Some of that is warranted, as the Phillies won over 90 games and their division in 2024 and 2025. But the cracks that showed those years expanded further in 2026, as the team had to limp into the postseason on the final day of the season. It is a team that is crying out for some sort of change, some sort of new idea that can breathe life into a franchise that has become stagnant. But if the Phillies and Dombrowski do indeed turn back to Mattingly, they will have shown they are officially out of ideas.
