Don Mattingly Departs

Yesterday after five seasons -- and three consecutive NL West titles -- the Dodgers parted company with manager Don Mattingly. An iconic Yankee who coached under Joe Torre and then followed him to the west coast, "Donnie Baseball" couldn't turn the highest payroll in the game into a champion. Losing in the Division Series to the Mets last week was clearly the last straw.
But to paraphrase another notable New York sports hero, football's Bill Parcells, Mattingly didn't "shop for the groceries." He didn't construct the roster, and didn't make the trades that sent away Matt Kemp, Dee Gordon and several other potentially productive players. Sure, he had Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke. But something was wrong when his best player this year was Mets castoff Justin Turner. The Dodgers front office, led by analytics mavens Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi inherited Mattingly from their predecessor Ned Coletti. With the Dodgers having missed the World Series since 1988, the longest gap in franchise history, a difference of opinion and parting of the ways seemed inevitable.


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