Don Mattingly was still hours away from the first pitch of the AL Championship Series between his Blue Jays and the Mariners, giving him a chance to reflect on his long, strange trip through the postseason — and possibly his first ring.
The former Yankees captain and current Toronto bench coach was just finishing breakfast on Sunday when he got on the phone to talk about the Jays’ takedown of the Yankees in the AL Division Series.
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Talk about surreal: Mattingly was in the visitors’ dugout at Yankee Stadium last week but was still honored with a roll call by the Bleacher Creatures.
“Man, that was kind of crazy, a little embarrassing, actually,” he said with a laugh. “But everyone (among the Blue Jays) thought it was great. Pretty funny.”
Mattingly’s connection to the Yankees remains unbroken, even as he acknowledged it was “weird” to be part of the brain trust that booted Aaron Judge and Co. out of the playoffs.
I asked Donnie Baseball if he had a message for miserable Yankees fans suffering through the 16-year championship drought.
If anyone understands these empty Octobers, it’s Mattingly. He went 14 years without a pennant, much less a ring. And he only made it to the playoffs once, in his final season in 1995.
Now, a decade into his own career, Judge is on the same slippery slope – years of excellence with nothing to show for it. A growing number of ticket buyers believe the situation is hopeless.
To this, Mattingly said, “The fans should be realistic.”
“The Yankees are good every single year. I mean, they went to the World Series last year. You walk into the Stadium, you know you’re facing a good team, with a lot of pieces.
“They’ve got young talent on the way, too. The foundation there is solid. It’s not like this is a team that’s falling apart. And let’s face it, man. It’s hard to win.”
While that logic is sound in theory, it won’t soften the rage on social media. Failed Octobers have become the norm in the Bronx.
And look what it’s doing to Judge’s legacy.
“Do you see any similarities between your career and Judge’s – two great players who were, and are, being denied championships?”
Mattingly said no.
“I don’t see Aaron that way, honestly,” he said. “The numbers he puts up are incredible, right? You can’t say he hasn’t done his part.
“In baseball, you have windows of time when you can win. I was in a lot of good windows in my time in New York, but there were also 3-4 years that were not good windows.
“The Yankees now, they’re always in a good window.”
So then why didn’t they beat Toronto?
Here is where Mattingly chose to tread lightly. Instead of critiquing the Yankees, he praised the Jays for the “it” factor no analytics department could ever quantify.
“You have to remember, we finished last (in 2024),” Mattingly said. “But we had so many guys who had bounce-back years. Guys like George (Springer) and Bo (Bichette) and (Alejandro) Kirk. All year, they showed up.
“It’s the little things I saw, like winning the first two games of a (three) game series without anyone ever telling himself, ‘We can afford to lose this one today.’
“We don’t strike out a bunch, so when we drive the ball and hit it out of the park, we’re really, really good.”
I explained to Mattingly the two turning points that helped the Jays flatten the Yankees. The first was knocking out Max Fried in the fourth inning of Game 2. The second was stripping rookie Cam Schlittler of his most potent psychological weapon – strikeouts – in Game 4.
Mattingly didn’t seem surprised by either.
“If we had caught the ball in Game 3, if (Addison Barger) had not dropped that pop-up (that led to Judge’s three-run HR), we would’ve won that game, too,” Mattingly said, suggesting how close the Jays came to sweeping the Bombers.
As for Fried and Schlittler?
Mattingly added one more name.
“We had a success against (Carlos) Rodón earlier in the year, too,” he said. “Same with Fried. We made them pitch; we fouled off enough balls where you force them to really work for their outs.
“So it really wasn’t that much of a shock that we were competitive against those two, not if you look at the whole body of work this year.”
The contrast to the Yankees’ style couldn’t be plainer. The Jays treat at-bats like pitch-to-pitch combat. The Yankees live for one pitch only – the one that can be driven 400 feet over the wall.
Mattingly wouldn’t disagree with the Yankees choosing power, but he nevertheless pointed out the cost of his former team’s philosophy.
“The Yankees are built for home runs, but what comes with that?” Mattingly asked before answering his own question,
“A lot of swing and miss.”
Mattingly finished the thought with a reminder that should be a wake-up call to general manager Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner,
“The thing everybody wants to do is play good defense, catch the ball, get good pitching, prevent runs,” Mattingly said. “So it depends on how you’re built.
“I mean, everyone wants the same things. It’s just that Yankees have always been built on power.”
That reliance on muscle has sent the Yankees home early for the 16th straight October, while Mattingly might just end up with ring No. 1.
There was a momentary pause in our conversation. You didn’t have to be a genius to realize Mattingly was smiling on the other end of the line.
“That would be pretty cool,” he said.
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