The Philadelphia Phillies announced this afternoon that 2008 World champion manager Charlie Manuel and hall-of-fame third-baseman Mike Schmidt will be among those that will work as guest Spring Training instructors for the team this year.
Manager Pete Mackanin and his coaching staff will intermittently be assisted by Larry Andersen, Dave Hollins, Jim Kaat, Greg Luzinski, Charlie Manuel, Matt Stairs and Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt. That group represents the 1980 World Champions, the 1983 National League Champions, the 1993 NL Champions, the 2008 World Champions and the 2009 NL Champions.
Larry Andersen, Dave Hollins, Greg Luzinski, Schmidt and Manuel are all hold-overs from last year's Spring Training staff, with Dan Plesac, Roy Halladay and Aaron Rowand not returning. Stairs and Kaat did not assist in the team in 2015.
It's unclear why someone like Halladay wasn't brought back as an instructor, because in theory he could have had a positive influence on players like Vincent Velasquez and Aaron Nola. The strong work ethic that Halladay was rumored to have had could have rubbed off on any of the young players that the team has. Perhaps he wasn't interested in coaching this spring or will work in a similar capacity for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Three current Phillies announcers are part of this staff, with Stairs and Andersen, who are the color commentators on television and radio respectively, and Schmidt still appearing on weekend home games.
Manuel's continued inclusion is interesting. It's not surprising because he maintains a role in the organization, it's just interesting because manager Pete Mackanin was on Manuel's staff from 2009-2012, but not retained for what turned out to be Manuel's final season in 2013. Now Manuel will be assisting Mackanin's staff in Spring Training.
For his part Mackanin sounds excited about the staff that will assist him for his first Spring Training as a big-league manager.
“We are really happy with the guest instructor staff coming to camp this year,” said Mackanin. “They’ll be there to assist our coaches where necessary and share some of their wisdom and experience with our young players.”
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
