“Thanks, but no thanks” isn’t the answer the Phillies expected from fired Red Sox manager Alex Cora. 

With the Phillies scrambling to figure out who their next manager will be, general manager Dave Dombrowski must now pull together a short list of candidates to lead the franchise. 

The obvious top candidate is Don Mattingly, who led the Phillies to a playoff berth and a strong 79-55 record despite taking over a team that was 9-19. The Post’s Jon Heyman reported the club could keep their interim manager for 2027 after initially appearing like that would not be the case.

“I think I would like to do it,” Mattingly said during the summer as the Phillies were piling up wins and competing for first place. 

So we know Mattingly will likely take it if Dombrowski offers him the gig, but whether that happens is another question entirely. 

“I think Alex Cora is one of the finest managers in the game of baseball,” Dombrowski told reporters in April. “I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Hall of Fame managers like Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland. … If Alex Cora decides he’s managing, he has a chance to be in that same category. That’s how good he is.”

Mattingly was Dombrowksi’s second choice in Philadelphia in April, though, and he may be that again, though outside options are rather thin.

Other potential hires could include Rocco Baldelli, Brad Ausmus and David Ross.

There’s no obvious link between Baldelli and Dombrowski, but he’s arguably the most credentialed of managers available. Baldelli is the third-winningest manager in Twins history, going 527-505 (.511), and won Manager of the Year in his first year after he went 101-61 in 2019.  

Dombrowski could also look at Ausmus — the Yankees’ bench coach since 2024 — who has a close relationship with Dombrowski dating back to Detroit in 2013.

Ausmus won 90 games in his first year with the Tigers before things cratered.

It was previously reported that Mattingly would be “gracefully dismissed” by the Phillies if they could hire Cora, though it now appears that Donnie Baseball might have a chance to stick around with the team longer than anticipated.