Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson is safe for now, according to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.
The Phillies, who have the fourth-largest payroll in MLB, have started the season with a poor 8-15 record, good for fourth place in the National League East, just one game ahead of the miserable New York Mets. Considering the Phillies entered this season as one of the top World Series contenders in the NL, this slow start to the season has been nothing but shocking. It has also led to calls that the team may consider replacing its longtime manager, the 62-year-old Thomson, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Dombrowski confirmed that he has no plans to replace Thomson on the bench despite the Phillies’ poor start to the season.
“We’re not (considering firing Thomson), but if we were, I wouldn’t even, that’s not something we’d ever share. Rob Thomson’s been a good manager for us since 2021. We always look at everything that’s taken place, but no, thatâs not being pondered at this point,” Dombrowski told reporters (per Phillies beat rep writer Todd Zolecki).
Rob Thomson Has Led the Phillies to Four Straight Playoff Berths
The Phillies fired former manager Joe Girardi early in the 2022 season and replaced him with Thomson, who was the team’s bench coach. Since Thomson took over as the Phillies’ manager, he has led the team to the playoffs in four straight seasons, including winning the NL East the last two years. The Phillies also made the World Series in Thomson’s first season on the job, though they ultimately lost to the Houston Astros 4-2 in the seven-game series. Overall, Thomson has an impressive 354-266 regular-season record as the Phillies’ manager, good for a .571 winning percentage. In the playoffs, he has a 21-17 record for a .553 winning percentage.
Despite Thomson’s strong resume with the Phillies, however, the team’s slow start to the 2026 season has led to growing unrest among fans, who believe the team is underachieving. The local media in Philadelphia have also openly pondered if the team is willing to make a move behind the bench in an effort to save the season before it’s too late, but if we are to believe Dombrowski, there won’t be any big moves coming anytime soon.
Rob Thomson is a World Series Champion
Before he joined the Phillies, Thomson was a member of the New York Yankees coaching staff, serving as the team’s third-base coach when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, ironically over the Phillies. To this point, that World Series win is the high-water mark of Thomson’s career, though he is still holding out hope he can manage the Phillies to another World Series berth.
Thomson, who was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, is one of two Canadian-born managers in MLB history, with George Gibson being the other. In 2019, he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, and, in 2022, he became the first Canadian to manage an MLB team to the World Series. As a player, Thomson was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 32nd round of the 1985 MLB draft, but he never made it to the big leagues.
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