Kind of a miracle he didn't keep his mouth shut about Trout during the All-Star festivities.
I just give him neither credit nor blame on this. Everyone knows the Phillies have some holes, and where they have severely underperformed. It's just that now, Harper and Schwarber and Marsh are also underperforming, so everyone's on edge (and defensive). Even Mattingly, given he now wants to keep the job.
DD really does get a pass for the most part, I guess because of his HOF resume and charm. I'm sure the radio guys and Marcus Hayes will rip him eventually (and have before). He did the Gillick part of the job here already, as well as the same job he did in Boston, but both of those teams got the ring. But he hasn't truly built a team since the Tigers. He was hired because nobody else wanted the job and he was MacPhail's friend, and he's been a good fit with Middleton, but he still seems pretty set in his ways, and it's hard to see his #2 as revolutionary figure either, though I guess we'll never know unless he gets the top job. Also, I gotta think the whole two Mattinglys thing is still problematic. As a manager Mattingly is going to push back at Harper's comments anyway, but the subtext is also that his star player is telling his kid what to do.
