Pete Mackanin will manage the Phillies for the remainder of the 2015 season, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. announced today. Mackanin, formerly Ryne Sandberg’s bench coach, has been managing the team since Sandberg’s sudden resignation last week. The Phillies also announced that Jorge Velandia, the team’s assistant minor league field coordinator, will join the Major League staff as an assistant coach.
The 63-year-old Mackanin had a nine-year career as a Major Leaguer and is now, strangely, in the midst of his third stint as a team’s interim manager following a midseason firing/resignation. Mackanin was the Pirates’ interim manager for the final month of the 2003 season after Lloyd McClendon was fired, and he served as interim skipper for the Reds in 2007 after Jerry Narron was dismissed in July.