As a fan of baseball, I can understand how some members of the media are baffled by the announcement by the Miami Marlins that manager Don Mattingly will return for the next two seasons.
As someone who covers the team for FanSided’s Marlin Maniac, it’s a bit harder for me to see the job Mattingly has done the past four seasons and see progress from the moment he was originally introduced as the team’s new skipper in 2016.
Four short seasons ago, there was hope this team had found the right man to get them back to the playoffs, to build more chemistry amongst the players on the roster and juggle a pitching staff which had Jose Fernandez and a bunch of question marks.