Don Mattingly wants to be the Marlins manager for a long time:

”I signed a four-year deal,” he said Monday. ”I plan on being here at least 10.

That sounds good to team president David Samson, who can only try to joke about the Marlins’ instability while enduring six consecutive losing seasons.

”I got a call from an executive of another team asking about our advice on hiring a manager,” Samson said. ”We’re good at it. We do it every year. … We committed that we wanted this to be the last manager’s press conference we ever did. We’ve done too many.”

It took George Steinbrenner a long time to find a manager he liked. Joe Torre had the uncanny ability to take the worst the boss could throw at him and his team, and channel it away from himself and his players. Mattingly was a Torre protege, and if he learned that trick, he might survive in Miami.

Of course, he’ll need to try to keep his stars healthy. The Marlins have three outstanding players in Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon, and Jose Fernandez. Full seasons from all three will go a long way toward making Mattingly look good.