Don Mattingly expects to be back next season

Don Mattingly is expected to be back with the Los Angeles Dodgers next season after a tough exit in the 2014 postseason.

The Los Angeles Dodgers once again entered the 2014 playoffs with high expectations. And once again they were bounced in disappointing fashion. Such as we have for the last couple years, we now have to go through the cycle of rumors that manager Don Mattingly will lose his job.

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According to Mark Saxon ESPN.com, Mattingly is pleased with the Dodgers’ 2014 season and expects to be back next season:

"Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, who signed a three-year contract extension last winter, said Thursday he expects to return in 2015 and that he would be surprised if general manager Ned Colletti wasn’t retained, as well.“I came to work today like every other meeting,” Mattingly said. “Nobody’s told me anything differently,”Both the manager and GM are believed to be under intense scrutiny after the Dodgers entered the 2014 season with a major league-record $235 million payroll and bowed out in the NL Division Series."

The problem for the Dodgers is not Mattingly as much as it is their lack of talent in the bullpen. It can be hard to quantify how much impact a manager has on a game, but it certainly seems shortsighted to blame the Dodgers’ skipper for what happened to their season despite the fact that they had World Series aspirations and fell short once again.

This off-season promises to be another aggressive one for the Dodgers, and one that should be focused on the bullpen. Pending a significant change in plans, the Dodgers will proceed with Mattingly as manager.

Don Mattingly is expected to be back with the Los Angeles Dodgers next season after a tough exit in the 2014 postseason.

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