Miami Marlins hire Don Mattingly as manager

According to Molly Knight of Vice Sports, the Miami Marlins will be hiring Don Mattingly and may have already signed him to a contract by this point. According a source close to the situation, Mattingly has already agreed to a four-year contract with the Marlins, but the team may not announce anything officially until after the World Series is complete.

Don Mattingly had previously managed the Los Angeles Dodgers for five seasons and posted a 446-363 record. The Dodgers won the NL West three out of the five years in which Mattingly managed the club, but there was a sense that he was disappointing due to the Dodgers' overwhelming available resources. The Dodgers never advanced to a World Series under Mattingly despite a huge surplus of talent both from the minors and from money spent on their roster.

The Marlins will now stake some amount of their next four years to Mattingly despite the fact that owner Jeffrey Loria has not stuck to one single manager for more than two years since Fredi Gonzalez was the team's leader from 2007 to early 2010. The Fish could afford to go after a more expensive name like Mattingly since the club recently had Ozzie Guillen's contract from back in 2012 finally run its course by the end of the 2015 season. Right now, the Marlins still have two years left on Mike Redmond's contract extension from before last season, which was signed just seven months before Loria fired him for the team's slow start.

There is some thought that Miami may have more patience with Mattingly, a former Yankees great whom Loria respects as a fan of the team. Of course, at the same time, the last former Yankee who took the reigns in south Florida was ousted fairly quickly; Joe Girardi famously won Manager of the Year for taking a surprising post-fire sale Marlins team to 78 wins in 2006, but was fired because of his contentious relationship with Loria. Mattingly is more of a soft-spoken general as compared to Girardi, but if any conflict grows between him and the owner, Loria probably will not hesitate to terminate him either.

The coaching staff behind Mattingly has not been decided. The Marlins have Perry Hill still under contract, but the remaining staff appears to be wide open and on its way out if necessary. The team may not retain any of the other members of the staff simply to allow Mattingly to help shape his own bench. The Dodgers do not plan on preventing any of the old coaching staff from leaving for new jobs, including long-time Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt.

More on this situation as it develops right here on Fish Stripes!