Philadelphia Phillies fire manager Pete Mackanin

Entering the final weekend of another bad season, the Philadelphia Phillies have fired manager Pete Mackanin.

The Philadelphia Phillies have the third-worst record in the majors (64-95) entering the final three games of the season. That losing course (with no end in sight) did not prevent manager Pete Mackanin from getting a new contract back in May, though that contract extension was only through 2018.

Mackanin entered Friday’s action with a 172-237 record (.421 winning percentage) in two-and-half seasons as Phillies manager. So even with another year tacked onto his contract over four months ago, his job security would never be considered great if a change was wanted from the higher levels of the organization.

On Friday afternoon, the Phillies came through with a somewhat surprising decision to fire Mackanin as manager. But he is not leaving the organization, and will stay on in what looks like a ceremonial, we’re paying you to do something for us next year front office role as a special assistant to general manager Matt Klentak.

It’s worth noting that Klentak inherited Mackanin upon taking his own post in October of 2015. So he probably wants to hire his “own guy” to be manager, and align philosophies with said guy long-term.

If the move to fire Mackanin came a surprise, for whatever reason, count Mackanin himself among this most shocked he won’t be back as Phillies manager in 2018.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic also added an interesting “and beyond” piece to Mackanin’s front office role with the Phillies next year.

Next: 5 candidates to be next New York Mets manager

The Phillies will now join the Detroit Tigers and the New York Mets (presumably) as teams that will be searching for a new manager. There may be a few more organizations embarking on a search for a new skipper, but those may not be known until Sunday night or Monday.