Can Winningest Miami Marlins Manager Finally Have Good Year?

Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly might have the most wins, but he’s hardly been their most successful skipper. Can 2020 change that?

This past Thursday, Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly made franchise history, becoming the organization’s all time winningest manager.

Now, to say the Miami Marlins have had a revolving door at manager over the years would be quite the understatement. Including a couple one game fill-ins, fifteen different skippers have taken a crack at leading the Marlins. That is a lot of turnover for a franchise that isn’t even thirty years old. Mattingly might have indeed secured some all time bragging rights when Miami finished their surprising sweep of Baltimore. No one has more wins. But he has hardly been the most successful skipper. In fact, in terms of career winning percentage, Mattingly doesn’t even crack the top three.

No, what Mattingly has done in terms of stand out accomplishment so far is merely to survive. He actually entered 2020 tied for the worst winning percentage, at least once you throw out Brandon Hyde‘s 0-1 cameo back in 2011. Claiming the top spot only took 282 victories, an impressive total by Miami Marlins’ standards, but one put in glaring perspective when you take a look at MLB’s other expansion teams. Those 282 wins would have been good for only fifth place on the Colorado Rockies, who came into the league the same year as Miami. Compared to the Diamondbacks and the Rays, who joined in 1998, Mattingly would have placed fourth and third respectively.

Put more plainly, out of the nine other managers covered by that breakdown above, eight of them had a winning season, made the playoffs, or both. A few even made the World Series. Mattingly has done none of those things. Yep, not even a winning season. Yet he endures, a feat as impressive as any achieved by a Marlins manager since 2003, when former wins record holder Jack McKeon won the franchise’s second championship.

To be fair, Mattingly did inherit a rebuild and an ownership change. That might even put him ahead of Jim Leyland, who spent a year watching his championship roster get dismantled before resigning the same offseason the team was sold. That’s a lot to deal with as it is, and that’s without even getting into the Jose Fernandez tragedy that capped off his first season, or the international pandemic that kicked off his fifth.

Beat writers, players, and the front office have spent years talking about what a wonderful teacher Mattingly has been during his tenure. However, even in 2020, it seems fair to ask, will this be the year he finally does something tangible to justify the Miami Marlins faith in him?

The early signs have been promising.

Certainly, no one expects the Marlins to keep that 7-3 pace of theirs up. Given the fact that nearly half of the original thirty man roster came down with coronavirus, winning just twenty games all year should be enough to kickstart some Manager of the Year talk. Breaking even at 30-30 would have to almost ensure the Marlins pick up their third Manager of the Year trophy.

Now, much of that early success came at the expense of the Baltimore Orioles, the only team in MLB Miami Marlins fans can safely make fun of. But if the Fish are still at least three games over .500 by the end of this week, Marlins fans should start feeling comfortable that the right man is running the show in Miami.

Well, assuming the Marlins ever get to play baseball in Miami again.