Latest Phillies coaching hire reminds us how different they are from the NY Mets

There are two general thoughts when it comes to a bench coach. You either want a guy on the rise or someone who has been a manager before. The New York Mets had John Gibbons aide Carlos Mendoza over the last two seasons. A mutual parting of ways with Gibbons opened up a spot on the coaching staff. They went with Kai Correa, a guy on the rise.

Down I-95, the Philadelphia Phillies made a change of their own. Rather than pair Rob Thomson up with a young buck ready to take his job, they’ve hired Don Mattingly. Coming off a year where he was the bench coach for the Toronto Blue Jays, it appears to be a strong addition to their coaching staff even if the mere idea of a bench coach seems unclear at times.

What’s especially unique about the Mets and Phillies right now is that each is led by an ex-New York Yankees bench coach, Thomson from the Joe Girardi years and Mendoza from the Aaron Boone ones. Other than this shared coincidence, they couldn’t be much more different.

The Phillies are running with an older-school approach while the Mets seem more modern

Look at the people running the show above the coaches. Dave Dombrowski’s style is about doing the obvious. He’ll sign the big free agents. There’s nothing wholly unique about what he does. On the contrary, David Stearns has the reputation as a baseball genius. A title he earned with success running the small market Milwaukee Brewers, we’re seeing the pair build coaching staffs in their image.

Thomson teamed up with Mattingly might be one of the best in terms of experience. How can you find a bench coach with as much knowledge of the game as Mattingly? Both a star player and experienced manager, he’s hardly the missing link for the Phillies, but still a good hire nonetheless.

With the Mets it’s different. They’ve gone away from experience and taken it upon themselves to find innovative thinkers. Correa has a good reputation, coincidentally earning a lot of his experience while working with ex-Phillies skipper Gabe Kapler while with the San Francisco Giants. There’s a nerd dynamic with the Mets. The Phillies look like the jocks.

Which is better? It depends on a lot of factors, the players being the most important one of all. The Phillies have been to the postseason in all 4 tries with Thomson once he took over for Girardi in 2022. The Mets missed with the Mendoza-Gibbons duo last year and saw the same thing with Buck Showalter and Eric Chavez in 2023. At the time, it seemed like Showalter was the old-school guy with Chavez as the rising manager candidate.

If there was one way to do things right, everyone would follow. The Phillies have regularly assembled a grungy team built around a good combination of starting pitching horses and power hitters while saying prayers for the bullpen. The Mets haven’t quite figured out the best pattern to work for them. As Stearns remains, we should expect more of the glasses held together with tape style of hirings.