The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Wednesday that they were rehiring Don Mattingly as their manager. This came one week after it was reported that former Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora had turned down the opportunity. Cora wasn't the only big name to decline the chance at leading the NL East club, according to a report Thursday morning by MLB senior writer Jayson Stark of The Athletic.
Stark wrote Thursday that former Phillies legendary second baseman Chase Utley and 2009 All-Star outfielder Raul Ibanez both rejected the potential new job. "(The Phillies) reached out to Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez, two high-profile names from their recent past, to gauge their interest in the job, according to two team sources with firsthand knowledge of those discussions. Both politely declined, those sources said," according to Stark's report.
"According to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could candidly discuss internal matters, the Phillies’ interest was serious enough that the team’s president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, formally requested permission from the Los Angeles Dodgers to contact Utley and Ibanez, both of whom work for the team." Utley spent 12-plus seasons with Philadelphia from 2003 to 2015, earning six All-Star nods, four Silver Slugger awards and one World Series title. He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in August 2015 and played the final three-plus campaigns of his career out west. The 47-year-old Utley currently serves as a special assistant to Dodgers president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman.
"According to one source, Utley quickly told the Phillies he wasn’t interested in managing at this time," Stark wrote. Per Stark's report, the former first-round draft pick told The Athletic that "at this stage of his life, it’s 'not realistic' for him to consider any managing opportunity." "Regardless if that (Phillies report) is true or not ... considering where I’m currently at with my family, that commitment (to a job like managing) is not really realistic at the moment," Utley said. "I’m completely happy with how things are going currently.
So that is something that I’m really not wanting to add to. I imagine everyone would totally understand that." Ibanez was Utley's teammate with the Phillies from 2009 to 2011 and also played for the Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles of Anaheim, New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners. The former 36th-round draft pick earned his only All-Star honor during the 2009 season in Philadelphia and is now in his third year as the Dodgers' vice president of baseball development and special projects.
Stark reported that Ibanez was, according to the former's source, "intrigued enough by the Phillies’ interest that he took a couple of days to think about it, then phoned Dombrowski to explain why he had decided to stay with the Dodgers." The Phillies had another early playoff exit this season after being eliminated by the Atlanta Braves in the NL Wild Card series.
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