Mattingly Tells Mason and Ireland That He Doubts Dodgers Will Be Able to Acquire an Impact Bat

On today’s Mason and Ireland show on ESPN radio, Dodger Manager Don Mattingly was as honest as I ever remember a baseball manager to be.  He let us know that the Dodgers need a big bat to accompany Kemp in the lineup AND then he expressed doubt that the Dodgers will be able to get a big bat.  He speaks in reality and doesn’t mince words.  No fluff, no misleading of anyone.  He simply told it like it is.   The news isn’t surprising at all.  What is surprising is how candid Don was.  I can’t ever remember a person in a position such as Mattingly ever being so honest with what can perceived as negative news.  

John Ireland and Steve Mason

“No, question, we need a bat that’s solid,” he said.  When asked if he is confident that the Dodgers could acquire that offensive punch, his honest response was what caught me by surprise.  “Not really, I can’t say I’m confident that we’re going to be able to do it...  We’ve talked about different things and a lot of different scenarios.  You talk about Plan A, that you’d like to do this.  I’ve heard Prince, you hear Albert, you know, those are nice thoughts.  There’s a lot of teams talking about those two guys, but am I real confident that we’re gonna be able to do that?  I can’t say that I am.  So you’ve gotta have a Plan B, you’ve gotta have a Plan C.  How do we put offense together if we can’t do something like that?  I don’t know where we’re going be.   As far as, um, what we are gonna be able to do.  Do we have to go backwards with budget?  Are we going stay the same or are we going forward?  I know Ned, we haven’t talked a lot in the last couple weeks.  He’s been kind of doing his thing and I’m doing mine now, but it’s getting to that point as this World Series winds down, it’ll get fired up quick.”

Full audioof the interview found at THIS LINK (starting at 7:43 minutes into the recording).