Philadelphia Phillies Did Right Thing By Extending Pete Mackanin’s Contract

The optics surrounding Pete Mackanin’s contract with the Philadelphia Phillies as recently as two days ago did not look good, but they look a whole lot better now after the Phillies extended the 64-year-old manager through the 2017 season on Friday.

Suddenly, the focus for the organization is a whole lot clearer, because Mackanin was fully content to go into the season as a lame duck manager with his one-year deal and being a lame duck is never good. The fact that the Phillies were not okay with it means the organization recognized what a good manager Mackanin is. It was never a certain thing, because Mackanin was the holdover from last year and 35-year-old GM Matt Klentak was hired after that.

Still, the two hit it off right away like a father and son, and that’s not an easy thing to do given the age difference and the reverse authority role. Klentak approached Mackanin and asked him to read over a 17-page contract, and Mackanin said he did not even need 10 seconds to peruse it because Philadelphia is the place he wanted to be all along.

That has to be good news for the Phillies, who did far better under Mackanin as an interim manager when Ryne Sandberg threw in the towel after 74 games. Sandberg was 26-48, a .351 winning percentage, a year ago. With arguably less talent than Sandberg—the Phillies jettisoned a number of veterans after Sandberg quit—Mackanin went 37-51 (a .420 winning percentage) in 88 games. His happy-go-lucky style seemed to be a better fit for younger players than the more strict style of managing that Sandberg brought to the team.

The fact that Klentak recognized he could do no better than Mackanin is a sign that his other decisions are going to have the same vision, and that’s the best optic of all.