Phillies’ Skipper Makes Blue Jays Change After Taking Over For Rob Thomson

Philadelphia Phillies Manager Don Mattingly Brings Practice From Toronto Blue Jays To New Team

Though it’s hard to pinpoint any specific changes Mattingly has made so far, he is bringing some clear differences to the manager’s role compared to his predecessor. For one, Mattingly enjoyed a long and successful career in the major leagues as a first baseman for the New York Yankees, while Thomson never reached that level in his own playing career.

And it also seems that Mattingly picked up a thing or two from his time with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he reached last year’s World Series as the bench coach.

The new Phillies skipper has called for regular meetings among his entire staff and other members of the organization to examine everything that is and is not working, citing his time with the Blue Jays as a key reason.

“It’s something that they do in Toronto, and it’s something I like,” Mattingly explained, per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “It’s more that I liked it in Toronto. I thought it was a good thing. And you bring it with you. There’s things in your whole career, you bring with you. Somebody shows me something, I like it, it becomes mine. That’s what I do now.”

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Mattingly picked up the practice during a successful run with the Blue Jays and, as the Phillies look to save their playoff hopes, it appears to be something that could help his new team.

The skipper explained that the meetings will happen every three weeks and that they will include “everybody in there,” including members of the front office. The goal appears to be distinguishing between anomalies and legitimate trends that need to be addressed during the marathon baseball season.

And, if it helped drive the Blue Jays to their postseason success last year, the Phillies should be embracing the new practice.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com