Phillies take interim tag off Pete Mackanin

The Philadelphia Phillies have announced Pete Mackanin will be their manager in 2016.

Mackanin replaced Ryne Sandberg on an interim basis on June 26. His contract was extended Tuesday through next season with a club option for 2017.

“They asked me if I would accept the contract and I said, ‘Well let me think about it, yes,’” Mackanin said. “It’s an honor and I’m so grateful for Ruben Amaro to put me in the spot that enabled this, for the players for playing hard for me, and for Andy MacPhail to have confidence in me.”

The 64-year-old Mackanin is 30-46 since Sandberg abruptly resigned in the middle of his second full season. The Phillies are 27-32 since the All-Star break.

“I think they responded very well and I think that’s the biggest reason why I got the job,” Mackanin said. “Our record isn’t the best obviously. We’ve been scuffling to score runs and the pitching hasn’t done as well as we would like, but I’m happy. There’s only 30 of these jobs in baseball and I’ve got one of them so I’m looking forward to the future.”

Mackanin has worked for the Phillies for six of the past seven seasons. He served as bench coach for four seasons (2009-12) before returning as third-base coach in 2014. He’s the eighth Phillies manager to have also played and coached for the team.

“Scott (Proefrock) and I thought it was important to offer Pete Mackanin an extension for the 2016 season,” said MacPhail, who will be the team’s next president shortly after the season ends. “We’re very impressed with the level of energy and effort that has increased since he’s taken over. We know the record isn’t exactly where we would want it, particularly the last week or so, but I think it’s our job to be realistic in assessing where our talent level is after the trades and some of the injuries that we endured.

“I think we have to be fair on how we evaluate the manager. We certainly enjoyed a nice spark when he came on board over a course of about a two-month period and we’re very confident that he can help this club in 2016 and go forward.”

Mackanin, with a career record of 83-99, previously was interim manager for the Pirates (2005) and Reds (2007).

“That’s the one thing I’ve never had, to start from scratch in spring training,” Mackanin said. “I think I can put my stamp on the way we do things, what is most important to me, what I think is very important to win games, whether it’s baserunning or defense or offense or pitching_all of these combined.”

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