Dodgers manager Mattingly agrees to new deal

Los Angeles: Don Mattingly and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed on a new contract that will keep him as manager of the Major League Baseball club through the 2016 season.

Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti confirmed the new deal Wednesday that will replace the 2014 option season Mattingly faced with a three-season deal. Mattingly and the team had been in talks about an extension for much of the three months since the 2013 campaign concluded, a season in which rumors of Mattingly`s ouster became common as the Dodgers struggled through June in last place. But the Dodgers rallied over the second half of the six-month season and reached the playoffs, advancing to the National League championship series. That ensured Mattingly would return for 2014 thanks to a clause in his contract, but the manager made it clear he did not want to return only as a lame duck with no contract going forward. "It puts me in a spot where everything I do is questioned," Mattingly said last October. "It`s a tough spot." Mattingly has gone 260-225 in three seasons with the Dodgers after replacing Joe Torre.