Who MLB insider believes to be John Schneider’s replacement is bad news for Blue Jays fans

Over the past week, we had taken an in-depth look at potential solidcandidates that could replace John Schneider in the managerial position for the Toronto Blue Jays if he were to be fired. However, in a recent article penned by MLB insider Bob Nightengale, he has come up with the name of another intriguing candidate if Schneider ultimately becomes the scapegoat in a struggling Jays’ season. Nightengale stated that his expected replacement would be bench coach Don Mattingly.

If Mattingly is “expected” to be the answer to the team’s problems, then this could means bad news for the Jays and their fans. Not to take anything away from what Mattingly has accomplished since after all, he does have a wealth of experience having been a manager of over 12 years for both the Dodgers and Marlins. Moreover, he even won the NL Manager of the Year award back in 2020 with the Marlins, so it must all mean something right?

Well, when Mattingly was handed the Dodgers’ team in the early 2010s, he managed to lead the squad to strong regular season records. But when it came to the playoffs, they came up short, losing in the first round twice and the second round once. When Mattingly took over for the Marlins from 2016-2022, his teams sported a losing record in six of the seven years, including a 105-loss season in 2019. In his only season with a winning record in 2020 where he captured the Manager of the Year award, the Marlins were just barely over .500 at 31-29. They did make the postseason that year as a result due to the COVID-shortened schedule, but as one could guess, they exited in the first round of the playoffs. Kind of sounds familiar right?

With a career managerial record of 889-950 and a losing postseason record of 10-14, Mattingly’s credentials sure pales in comparison to some of the previous successful candidates we suggested earlier. On top of that, while serving as the Jays’ bench coach starting in 2023, he had been given an additional title of “offensive coordinator” during the 2023 offseason to enable him to oversee the work of the Jays’ hitting coaches, along with having a say in terms of transforming the team’s offensive potential. Given that Mattingly was a master of hitting himself during his active time as a player, posting a career .307 batting average with over 2000 hits, 222 home runs and 1099 RBI, it made total sense that he should know a thing or two about how to become an effective hitter and run producer.

However, the Jays’ offense in 2024 has performed even worse than their previous seasons. In fact, it has been one of the worst in all of baseball this year, whether it be the hitting or the run production. So whatever methods and strategies that Mattingly have been implementing for the team, they truly haven’t been working. So to have him potentially take over the reigns as the primary manager of the entire team may not be the best plausible solution if the Jays want to rectify their current serious problem in generating offense. As a result, hopefully the endorsement of Mattingly is more of a suggestion than something that’s already believed to be set in place. Otherwise, the Jays could be asking for even more trouble than expected.