TORONTO (AP) — The Toronto Blue Jays are moving Don Mattingly back to the position of full-time bench coach after the six-time All-Star also spent the 2024 season as the team’s offensive coordinator.
“He’s excited about that opportunity to impact us and (manager John Schneider) in a different way and a bigger way,” general manager Ross Atkins said Wednesday at his end-of-season news conference. “We think the world of Donnie. He’s been incredible and open-minded to change, as well.”
Atkins said associate manager DeMarlo Hale will remain in his role supporting Schneider in 2025.
However, Atkins said hitting coach Guillermo Martinez, field coordinator Gil Kim and assistant pitching coach Jeff Ware won’t return after the Blue Jays went 74-88 and finished last in the AL East.
The Blue Jays scored 671 runs this season, the 23rd highest total. Arizona led baseball with 886 runs.
Toronto hit 156 home runs, the fifth-lowest total in the majors. The Yankees led baseball with 237 homers.
Atkins said Ware is under contract and will be offered another role in the organization. Kim is not under contract but also will be offered another role. Both are also free to pursue other opportunities, Atkins said.
Martinez is not under contract and will not be back with the Blue Jays.
A former New York Yankees slugger, Mattingly joined Toronto as bench coach in November 2022 after seven seasons with Miami. He won NL Manager of the Year honors with the Marlins in 2020.
Before Miami, Mattingly won three division titles in five seasons as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also worked as hitting coach and bench coach for the Yankees, and as hitting coach of the Dodgers before his managerial stint in Los Angeles.
Mattingly spent his entire 14-year playing career with the Yankees, winning nine Gold Gloves at first base, three Silver Slugger awards, the 1984 AL batting title and the 1985 AL MVP award.
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FILE - Toronto Blue Jays bench coach and offensive coordinator Don Mattingly (23) smiles in the dugout before a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, May 13, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
SPRUCE PINE, N.C. (AP) — Two North Carolina facilities that manufacture the high-purity quartz used for making semiconductors, solar panels and fiber-optic cables have been shut down by Hurricane Helene with no reopening date in sight.
Sibelco and The Quartz Corp both shut down operations in the Appalachian town of Spruce Pine on Thursday ahead of the storm that swept away whole communities in the western part of the state and across the border in East Tennessee. The town is home to mines that produce some of the world's highest quality quartz.
With increasing global demand, Sibelco announced last year that it would invest $200 million to double capacity at Spruce Pine.
Since the storm, the company has simply been working to confirm that all of its employees are safe and accounted for, according to a statement, as some were “unreachable due to ongoing power outages and communication challenges.”
“Please rest assured that Sibelco is actively collaborating with government agencies and third-party rescue and recovery operations to mitigate the impact of this event and to resume operations as soon as possible,” the company wrote.
The Quartz Corp wrote that restarting operations is a “second order of priority."
“Our top priority remains the health and safety of our employees and their families,” the company wrote.
City officials in Spruce Pine are focused on locating people who were stranded by the storm, said Wayne Peight, a member of Spruce Pine's town council, but reopening the mines is important to more than just the companies behind the facilities.
Peight estimated that around three-quarters of the town has a direct connection to the mines, whether that is a job, a job that relies on the mines or a family member who works at the facilities.
“It’s the underpinning of our economy,” he said, and getting the facilities back running “is going to be extremely critical" for the people in Spruce Pine.
“If there is no cash in, especially in a county with as many people on the poverty scale as we have already, we are going to have a really difficult fall and winter if that doesn’t happen quickly,” Peight said.
An aerial view of quartz mines in Spruce Pine, N.C., as taken from a plane on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary D. Robertson)
