Don Mattingly has arrived and will be here longer than we thought. About three weeks, he said.
Initially, he fouled off the question of whether he thinks he'll rejoin the coaching staff in 2009.
``I hope so, but right now, I'm not thinking too far down the road,'' he said. ``I'm not going to make decisions right now, because this isn't a good time to make decisions. At this point, it's anything Joe wants me to do and if I can help (hitting coach) Mike (Easler) in any way. But I need to take a back seat and make sure (Easler) is the guy out front, the lead guy. There needs to be one voice coming out all the time, and it needs to be Mike's.''
Later, Mattingly hinted that he will return next year. His reason for backing out of the hitting coach's job is that he wants to stay home in Evansville, Ind., with his youngest son, Jordan, 16, during Mattingly's ongoing divorce from Kim, his wife of 28 years.
``He needs to get a solid year, and I want to make sure he gets that during this transition year,'' Mattingly said.
Mattingly also said the decision to back out of the hitting coach's job was a no-brainer, but a tough one nevertheless.
``Family decisions are always easy decisions for me,'' Mattingly said. ``(But) it was hard because this was the first time I ever made a commitment to someone and couldn't live up to that.''