Why Mattingly is more excited about his Manager of the Year Award than even his 1985 MVP

There’s no shortage of hardware on Don Mattingly’s trophy case.

He won the MLB Most Valuable Player Award for the American League in 1985. He was an All-Star six times and won the AL batting title in 1984. The Miami Marlins manager was the New York Yankees’ best player all throughout the 1980s and the Yankees even retired his No. 23 in 1997.

Still, all those accolades paled in comparison to his latest. On Thursday, Mattingly won the Sporting News Manager of the Year Award for the National League — a fitting conclusion to the most surprising story in the 2020 MLB season.

“I’m usually not a guy that gets very excited about that kind of stuff. I’ve had enough success — MVP and batting titles — that those are things that don’t kind of make me excited. This is one that’s exciting,” Mattingly said, “but it’s not exciting necessarily just for me. I think I look at this award as an organizational award. You have to have great staff. Your players have to go perform, so as an organization I feel like it’s just so good to be recognized because you know where we’ve been the last couple of seasons and to be making strides — that’s who gets these awards, right? You don’t get them when you’re expected to win World Series and you come close. You get them when you’re team is not expected to do a lot and you kind of overachieve.”

The Marlins’ season began with almost nonexistent outside expectations. They were the worst team in the NL in 2019 and were tied for the worst odds of any team in the Majors to win the World Series in 2020. They had 18 players test positive for COVID-19 in the first week of the shortened season, made 174 roster moves and had 18 players make their Major League debuts, including 11 who never had played above Double A.

Through it all, Mattingly guided Miami to a second-place finish in the NL East, its first winning record since 2009 and its first trip to the MLB postseason since 2003.

“The batting title is something that you accomplish as a player,” Mattingly said. “This is, for me, an organizational thing. It’s an organizational award and it’s basically saying, You guys are moving in the right direction because of what we’ve been through. We’ve been through two years of just — last year was painful. It’s the first time I’ve been involved in a situation where we love over 100 games. That is not a good situation to be in, no matter what.

“We’re moving forward, so that’s kind of the reason for my excitement about this a little bit because everybody gets recognition and it shows that we’re headed in the right direction.”

The successful 2020 season hasn’t prevented the organization from tinkering already in the offseason. On Sunday, the Marlins announced they wouldn’t retain general manager Michael Hill, whose contract was expiring, even after the rebuild he contributed to finally started to show progress.

CEO Derek Jeter and Hill met over the weekend and decided it was best to part ways after Hill spent nearly two decades in South Florida.

Mattingly, who came to Miami ahead of the 2016 MLB season, had built a close relationship with Hill in their five seasons together. He was upset to his longtime collaborator leave, but he’s also realistic about how much it will really mean for the organization moving forward.

As Jeter said Sunday, decision-making has been a collaborative effort the last few seasons. Whoever replaces Hill won’t have all-encompassing power. It will continue to be a collaborative endeavor in Florida.

“It was a tough week, to be quite honest with you. I don’t know all the particulars of what happens in those talks and what the thought is on that, and I never have been part of that anywhere, where you’re a part of those decisions, but, from a personal standpoint, it was tough. We worked five years together and been fighting to get this thing built,” Mattingly said.

“That being said, when you read Derek’s comments it talks to really what’s been going on. It’s been more group decisions and discussions on different things that happened during the season at the Major League level. ... There’s a collaboration of people that discuss and talk, and inform and give opinions on where things are at. That, obviously, that leadership or Derek trusts and that’s kind of where the direction has been going.”

The next steps in the offseason will be figuring out which coaches to retain and decisions could come soon. Coaches on one-year deals typically have their contracts expire around the end of October.

So far, Mattingly said there haven’t been any discussions, though, and the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to present some uncertainty, as is the Marlins’ front-office turnover.

“That’s kind of up in the air in the industry, it feels like. I don’t think anybody knows what’s going to happen next year,” Mattingly said. “I’m not sure exactly what’s going on as far as where Derek and the front office is on how that’s going to be handled, so we haven’t had those meetings yet or those talks at all.”