CHICAGO — It is starting to look natural now, the vibrant Dodger blue that Don Mattingly wears every day. He had always been a Yankee, as a player and a coach, but this is his fifth season out of pinstripes. His new legacy is steadily growing.

Mattingly is the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who at 18-10 are tied with the Washington Nationals for the best record in the National League. In the visitors’ dugout on Friday, before a series at Wrigley Field, he said he never wondered how his life would have unfolded if the Yankees had hired him, instead of Joe Girardi, to replace Joe Torre after the 2007 season.

In fact, Mattingly said, he is grateful. His personal life was falling apart then, with a divorce from his wife, Kim, and the Yankees’ job could have overwhelmed him.

“Honestly, going through it, after 28 years, it was just like pain,” Mattingly said. “I couldn’t hardly eat, much less try to manage a ball club, the first one I’ve ever had a chance to manage. And if I could hardly eat, how was I going to be able to deal with all that? So it was one of those that you go, ‘Thank God for not getting that job.’ That was a blessing.”