This has kind of been touched on throughout the year. There was a report or two earlier in the year that Mattingly was as good as gone as the new FO wanted to tear the whole thing down and build from up from their new angle. The thing was they decided that with a multitude of player moves and a good bit of moves here and there that it would A. Be a huge undertaking and B. They were really worried that a full remodel would lead to too many players looking over their shoulders thinking, "am I next?". I honestly think that did kind of happen anyway as basically every veteran had either a young kid nipping at their heels, a new contract coming this off season or a giant contract that they suddenly saw as expendable thanks to this franchises financial prowess.
IOW, produce or you'll be replaced! All these overpaid FUX should be able to withstand with a little insecurity to keep them playing hard even after they get paid. Not a bad plan. IMO. The bad part is they had a window to get Maddon going forward, and didn't, which leads me to believe the top nerd felt Maddon would upstage him here, like he may have done in Tampa. Case in point, look how the Cubs jumped with him and how we just tread water without.
Conte said he wants to focus more time on research. Hey Stan. Why don't you start with hamstrings? Fucking idiot.
Joe Maddon. The same one that led his team to be swept by the Mets? Shit at least Don and the Dodgers beat them 2x. Maddon is as overrated as any manager. He now has a huge payroll team and didn't lead them any better in the post season than ours did, except to beat the weakened Cardinals just to get their asses handed to them by NY.
Ahhhh, but consider this, Batman, Maddon manages us to a marked improvement (read: top seed) and WE are the ones meeting and sweeping them in the LCS !