The Dodgers have had a ton of success over the years, and it has led to many franchises around baseball wanting to emulate that success. Oftentimes, teams will try to bring in the people at the top who made the success happen, and sometimes that can be in the form of coaching staff members.
Even before this recent run of winning under manager Dave Roberts, LA was a good team under former manager Don Mattingly. Mattingly just couldn’t get the Dodgers over the hump, so it was time to move on. He went on to manage the Miami Marlins and spent last season as a bench coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.
It now seems that the former Dodgers manager and one of their current coaches are in the running for the open managerial position with the Milwaukee Brewers. First base coach Clayton McCullough has been a candidate for multiple open positions this offseason, and he is once again being considered.
MLB insider Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported the news.
“Don Mattingly and Dodgers first-base coach Clayton McCullough are also in the Milwaukee mix, as Ken Rosenthal reported.”
If Milwaukee wants to go the veteran route, Mattingly makes sense. He has been in the league for a while now, and the team did just win the NL Central last season. They may not want to enter into a rebuild, and bringing in Mattingly could signal that.
Both would be good fits in Milwaukee, but McCullough could make more sense for the Brewers. They have reportedly been considering going on a fire sale, and getting a young manager to lead the way could be the answer.
He could grow with the players in the rebuild, and his baseball IQ could help them build things back up. McCullough has been a respected member of the Dodgers organization over the last few years, and he deserves a chance in the big leagues.
This will be something to monitor as the offseason continues, but it seems that McCullough may not be back next season. Some MLB team will give him a chance at some point, and they won't regret doing so.
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