I feel bad for Pete Mackanin. After more than two years at the helm of the going-nowhere, head-against-the-wall rebuilding Philadelphia Phillies, he has been reassigned to an as-yet undetermined position in the front office as an adviser to general manager Matt Klentak. He will not be the team’s manager in 2018, despite having signed a contract four months ago to do just that.
Mackanin will not hit the unemployment line, and he will still be in baseball, which puts him in a better position that most people who are fired from their jobs. But he will not the field general for a Phils team that appears to be awakening from the doldrums of the last few years.