By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
It appears that Philadelphia Phillies manager Pete Mackanin will enter 2017 Spring Training as a lame duck, with the club holding the ability to pick up his option for 2018 or negotiate a new contract at any time.
In many ways, 2017 will be a defining year for Mackanin. When he took over as manager for Ryne Sandberg in June of 2015, he clearly connected with the club much better than the Hall of Fame player did. In 2016, Mackanin had the team overachieve in the first half and did his best at managing an undermanned bullpen, but the team's two most important young offensive players, Odubel Herrera and Maikel Franco, didn't develop at the pace some may have hoped.
Perhaps the best indication of Mackanin having something to prove in 2017 is that a year after ranking him the 21st best manager in the MLB, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe kept Mackanin at No. 21 in his annual ranking of the league's managers:
He’s going to be the guy who transitions the Phillies from rebuild to contender. His bosses appear very happy with his work.
General manager Matt Klentak did add Michael Saunders and Howie Kendrick this offseason, two veteran hitters who can help to take pressure off an otherwise very young lineup. He added two veteran relievers in Pat Neshek and Joaquin Benoit, meaning Mackanin can't allow Jeanmar Gomez and Hector Neris to throw so many innings this year that they burn out down the stretch. Klentak also retained Jeremy Hellickson and traded for Clay Buchholz, potentially giving the Phillies their deepest rotation in years.
On top of the veterans that the Phillies added, much of how Mackanin is assessed will depend on how players he has had multiple years to coach — Herrera, Franco, Aaron Nola — develop. It's great if the team can make moderate improvements because of the additions of established veterans, but the ability of the coaching staff to develop young talents will determine whether the team returns to contention over the next few seasons.
The best way for Mackanin to move up lists like this is for the Phillies to improve as a team. Given the amount of young talent that the club has already at the major league level and on the cusp of reaching the major league level, in addition to all of the available money the organization has, that seems very possible over the next few seasons, assuming he remains the manager.
