The Phillies expressed their continued confidence in manager Rob Thomson and his coaching staff today, with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski revealing that Thomson has been extended through the 2026 season and his full staff will return in 2025 (per reporters, including Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer). Thomson’s previous contract ran through the 2025 campaign, so it would have left him in lame duck limbo entering next season. As for the rest of the coaches, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported last week that the Phillies were holding “evaluation meetings” in which they would decide whether or not to make any changes to the coaching staff. Evidently, the team’s top decision makers came away from those meetings feeling good about the group of coaches that has led the club to three consecutive postseason appearances.
Thomson took over as the Phillies’ manager partway through the 2022 season, replacing his long-time boss Joe Girardi. A baseball lifer, Thomson had no big league managerial experience at the time, but he had been a major league coach for the Yankees and Phillies since 2004 and a minor league coach and manager (and briefly a front office executive) since 1988. Over parts of three seasons at the helm in Philadelphia, he has led the team to a 250-185 (.575) record, two Wild Card berths, one NL East division title, and one NL pennant. The Phillies have also gone 20-14 in the playoffs under his leadership.
While this year’s postseason run ended much sooner than the Phillies and their fans might have anticipated, there was little reason to think a change was in order atop the dugout steps. That being said, it’s noteworthy that Thomson has now received one-year extensions in back-to-back offseasons. Clearly, the organization doesn’t want him managing as a lame duck, but at the same time, they have been hesitant to give him a long-term deal.
Slightly more surprising than Thomson’s extension is the fact that his full coaching staff will remain intact next season. After all, it’s quite common for a coach or two to get the scapegoat treatment after a season ends in disappointment. However, it’s important to remember how well the Phillies played over the 162-game regular season and not just their poor performance in the NLDS. They were above-average in just about every aspect of the game, including hitting, baserunning, pitching, and fielding. That’s not to say there’s no room for improvement, but Dombrowski appears to be sticking with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. That approach worked well this past season, in which the Phillies ran it back with nearly the exact same roster and coaching staff they had the year before and managed to improve by five games.
The Phillies coaching staff includes pitching coach Caleb Cotham, assistant pitching coach/director of pitching development Brian Kaplan, hitting coach Kevin Long, bench coach Mike Calitri, third base coach Dusty Wathan, first base/outfield/baserunning coach Paco Figueroa, and infield coach Bobby Dickerson, among others. Interestingly, all seven of those coaches joined the staff before Thomson took over as skipper. Managers often like to put together their own group of coaches, but Thomson seems happy working alongside the staff he inherited.
Nice of them to keep him around to see the fall of the Roman Empire.
I wonder if he is taking violin lessons.
But I’m not crazy, just a little unwell,
Right now you can’t tell,
But stay until the post season,
And you’ll see a different side of me.
DD will be at his best. Watch. The guy can rebuild a roster.
I’m sure you would be better. When did you play 10-12 little league and know all?
I played through college and gave it (salvi) an up vote anyway.
Post was creative and funny, still think it was a good move considering other options. But am probably in the slight minority given the sports chatter.
Why only extend him one year?
So they don’t owe him a ton of money when they fire him.
oscar gamble;
Works with Bud Black and the Rockies. They may have started a trend.
Nothing “works” in Colorado Rockies land.
The best thing I can say about Thomson is, he’s not the 3rd base coach in NY anymore. Ahahaha!
Because he sucks
His third year will be the longest anyone has managed that disaster since Charlie Manuel.
Expect another quick departure from the playoffs if they get that far.
So ridiculous to bring back everyone. Just repeating mistakes they made under Amaro that made them irrelevant for ten years.
What a joke! Let’s bring them all back and not address that your team couldn’t hit their way out of a paper bag all year. If you weren’t going to fire the manager, at least the hitting coach should have been gone! The hitting approach is a joke. Trying to pull the ball and jack everything out instead of going with the pitch. Could have sent a message to his buddies Harper and Schwarber by firing Kevin Long, but let’s run it back again one more time! Bryce isn’t getting any younger! We are wasting time!
5th out of 30 in scoring. Having both Marsh & Rojas on the team looks redundant. And who who trailed off? Stott was down, but that was mostly a matter of BABIP. The rest of the team hit as expected.
If I read it correctly, the article said that all the coaches will be back, and at the same time saying there will be evaluating meetings to see if any changes are needed. Puzzling.
You can change strategy without changing personnel.
I don’t pay too much heed to what any FO says. For all I know, they could like long and still opt for a different hitting approach.
Just going back to what the OP said about their offense, they are already #5 in RS. There isn’t that much that can be done.
Hilarious when fans of teams with a top 5 offense complain about a lack of hitting.
It’s a fair point when in the NLDS their only win they had 7 runs, while averaging less than 2 runs/game in their 3 losses. Doesn’t help when bullpen also had 3 blown saves. NYM outpitched PHI, but PHI SPs pitched better than the series record indicated.
Maybe it was the long layover?
I said the same thing when they lost about the offense, but it is difficult to point at a 4-game run to imply that the Phillies can’t score.
SD scored -0- in their last two games. Baltimore 1 in 2 games. Houston 3 runs.
Same thing they were saying about the Barves iirc…
Barves, didn’t they lose to the Purdues
They lost to the Phillies who finished 14 games behind them. They loved bringing it up.
Offense has been too streaky past 2 postseasons. Can’t win by relying on homers when facing good pitching and not the Nats and Marlins in October. Roster needs some tweaks, they should offload one of Marsh/Soto and possibly Schwarber. They’re stuck with the worthless Castellanos but they can DH him more Schwarber traded. Bohm could fetch something too but his defense still isn’t good at 3B and can’t play 1B cause Harper is there, but a 1B needy team could take him to play there. Walker is sunk cost at this point they should probably just cut him but if he’s kept around battery sales will go up in the greater Philly area.
Somebody mentioned ‘battery sales’, everybody drink!
Maybe Harper never wins a World Series. Nationals one as soon as he left. Hmmm….
Only way to find out is to get rid of him. 🙂
Agreed, his 1.153 postseason OPS with the Phillies is just killing the team.
bpflyers1;
The hitting coach’s name is Kevin Long. He’s been a hitting
coach in MLB since 2007 – never missing a year. Before that
he was a successful manager and hitting coach in the minors.
He’s considered by many as the best hitting coach in MLB.
Were the Phillies to fire Mr. Long he would have his choice of
jobs in MLB. Many teams would consider firing or moving their current hitting coach to another area if they could get Mr. Long.
Kevin Ling is widely regarded as one of the most effective hitting coaches out there. He’s not the guy to dump on.
Whomever thinks this is a good idea likes candy corn.
With a name like candy corn, it has to be good. Ahahaha!
More Apathy
Where have you gone, Dallas Green? Phillies nation turns their lonely eyes to you.
Whoa whoa whoa
Crazy haters out there lmao ! Team is absolutely loaded, why make changes ? How can u possibly tap another shoulder and say 1. This guy will get us to postseason then 2. Win series in postseason. Think the Halloween witches brew is getting a bit over stirred
Because the manager is a fraud and it matters in the postseason. Clueless how to manage a pitching staff. Did you watch the 22 and 23 postseason? He was “less awful” this year but then again they weren’t around very long
It amazes me how we have so many successful managers, coaches and GM’s on here that are qualified to call the guys that are actually hired and successful at the major league level idiots and morons. It must be nice to be that smart…
Couldn’t get a better manager to do well during the regular season & flounder during the playoffs, Dave roberts was unavailable.
Philly peaked back in June/July. Maybe MLB needs two separate championships. One for the first half and one of the second half.
Fail.
@AM21
I know. My mom always said I was a failure. Nothing new to me. 😀
I’m so sorry, that wasn’t intended to be a reply to you but to the extension Thomson was given.
You aren’t the first to suggest this.
@Clofreesz
Well, it happened twice in MLB history, so of course I’m not the first. Maybe I’m the 100th?
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea either. I don’t know if anybody else agrees.
The 1981 season says hello.
@Captain Dunsel
Hello, 1981! What about 1892?
Or 1298
One bracket for the team that scores more run. One for the team that scores less runs.
This makes sense, they finished their last 103 games 52-51 and still finished with the 2nd best record in baseball. As the post says, this extension is just to take away any lame duck questions/storylines for next year. Obviously, if they do the same thing next year the coaches are gone but the extension gives them some breathing room.
But if they’re keeping everyone, they will not get substantial change unless they make significant changes to their roster. Like at least 1/3 of that starting lineup needs to change. Harper, Schwarber, & probably Realmuto return but they should keep all options open. But there’s no clear choices as Soto doesn’t help their outfield defense at all and their lineup isn’t good enough for the owner to give out a $400M deal to Soto while paying into the 110% tax bracket. So, Dombrowski will need to get creative in free agency and the trade market to really improve this team.
Like at least 1/3 of that starting lineup needs to change.
======================
They aren’t writing off Stott based on one season of slight regression. Bohm is a FA, so they will hope on additional motivation. And Turner and Casty are untradeable without eating salary. Maybe they do something with Marsh, but that’s not really who they need to replace.
In fact, if it was me, I’d go in the other direction, move Schwarber while his value is decently high, and put Castellanos as the DH on the ‘sunk cost’ theory. Castellanos has easily the worst fielding stats in BB over the past three years.
Bohm is not a free agent. He has two more years of arbitration before free agency.
I stand corrected. It feels like he’s been around a lot longer.
My guess is a Bellinger signing for CF, Walker goes away, and let it ride for the last year of Schwarber’s deal.
Jett do you love rock and roll or are you afraid of Bernardo and sharks
Dombrowski has gone soft in his old age. The Phillies window is rapidly closing and they need new direction
Phillies looked old and tired in playoff games.
It’s a home run or nothing team
Ronk325;
LOL
He’s been there for 3 seasons now. Do you remember the
condition the Phillies were in when he took over?
The only thing Mr. Dombrowski is guilty of is setting a
high standard.
P.S. I suspect major changes are coming.
Dombrowski’s early run with the Phillies was strong but the past year has been a series of misfires. The Nola contract is awful and the Phillies had a weak trade deadline when they should have gone for the jugular. They needed a right handed power hitter to put behind Harper and all they got was Hays. 2025 could very well be the Phillies last chance to win with this group of players and retaining Thompson shows they’re already lacking urgency
The only thing Mr. Dombrowski is guilty of is setting a
high standard.
===========================
But more importantly, how did his major moves work out?
Schwarber, Castellanos, Turner, Walker, Strahm, Merrifield & Soto cost $100M for 8.6 bWAR. The core of the team remains Harper, Realmuto, Bohm, Stott, Wheeler, Nola, Sanchez, and Suarez.
I’m not bashing him. It takes some time to develop a pipeline. But DD’s starting rotation is Taijuan Walker.
JoeBrady;
He signed FA’s because he had little in the farm system. The youngsters he had that showed promise he’s had his coaches working with. He’s added some to the farm system and they’ll be coming up. Like the Braves, don’t look at the way the farm system is ranked by unemployable talent evaluators working in the media, look at the players they bring up. Doesn’t take a lot. 1-2 a year that contribute and subsequently get better has a cumulative effect.
Yes, I too couldn’t understand the Taijuan Walker signing. Nor the bullpen guys. They have good pitching coaches. Need to develop their own…as they have with Ranger and Sanchez.
Like I said, it takes time to develop a pipeline, But by the same merit, you also can’t pat him on the back for just signing FAs.
They’re still a good team, but they might be hitting the wall soon. They’re at $275M, assuming they non-tender Hays. That’s just $26M before they hit the 110% tax threshold.
I’d close my eyes and go with Walker as my #5, but they really need another halfway decent outfielder, a closer, and almost definitely another good RP.
Dombrowski also guilty of too many consonants. Would take forever to solve him despite Vannas hints
IMHO, if they liked the guy, they’d have given him a real extension. A one-year extension sounds like they weren’t ready to make the break.
Thompson has said he will never manage another team. This is it for him. This year to year is a non issue for him. He’ll gladly sign 5 more one year extensions if the phillies keep winning. And ownership will gladly do that as well.
Thomson is as overrated as they come,
Only manager of a playoff team in 23 not to get a single vote for manager of the year. People that watch the game know he is garbage, people that just look at box scores are all “ he has done a good job “
Mr. Thomson is as good a manager as there is in MLB.
I knew one manager in particular. From Day One he told his players that if he had anything to discuss the them he’d do it in private, and not in the media or in front of his teammates = and that’s what he did He managed 3 teams for maybe 8-10 years. Got to the WS 3 or 4 times. The media and fans thought all he did was push buttons. Only one player ever said anything bad about him publicly. Former players have kept in touch for years. A few came out and said he was the best manager they ever played for. His teams didn’t do better for years after he left them.
Ned yost say hold me beer
As best as I can tell from the comments, the Phillies won 95 games, the NL East and three playoff berths despite RT. Anyone else, including many MLBTR posters, would be well on their way to a third consecutive WS title. By extension, I’m guessing DD is a knucklehead, nincompoop for not firing RT?
Angels & NL West;
Yes.
And many write that all DD has done is spend money on FA’s. And a poster above says he did that poorly.
The man is a shoo-in for the HOF when he retires.
P.S. As legendary football coach Paul Brown once said: “If I listen to the fans, it won’t be long I’ll be sitting with them.”
His FAs with Philly are poor.
He got what was available. Took a team that was a failed rebuild and got them to the WS in year one. and to the playoffs the next 2 years.
I understand looking at individual players stats and coming to a conclusion as to how money was spent. But the issue to me is wins / a teams success. That’s what I look for in following MLB. No team wins every year. Teams with the best overall stats seldom win. Fine with me. Everyone can view things from whatever perspective makes them happy.
I embrace organizations that do sustainable contention. The Astros have been the best the past 15 years or so. But even they have “bad” years such as this year. That hardly makes them failures or something. One can find shortcomings with all 30 organizations every year. The players suck…the manager sucks…the FO sucks…the owners are cheap……that’s on here 24/7/365.
He got what was available.
==========================
Okay, but how does that qualify as doing anything? Suppose I signed them. Would I get credit for it?
I bring this up because I remember one of the NY papers (NYP?) calling Minaya a genius because he signed Beltran & Pedro. And I thought “I could sign those checks too. Does that make me a genius?”.
The thing that made DD a genius in Boston was trading for Sale, not spending Henry’s money on Price. I could’ve done that.
15 years!!! I must be bad at math. Burn my college degrees!!!
The lineup failed to execute and the bullpen imploded. You can have all 30 managers in the dugout and it wouldn’t have changed the outcome.
what evidence do we have that players don’t play hard for thompson? all reports are the players love him. i get that expectations are sky high, but the simple fact is that for the second straight year they ran into a team on a magic carpet ride.
If you actually watched the games, you’d be asking what evidence there was that the Phillies actually played hard for Thomson. They’re a talented but undisciplined team that has become complacent, hence the playoff meltdowns in back to back seasons.
The Texas Rangers handled the DBacks just fine in the World Series last year after the Phils blew a 2-0 lead to the 84 win team with Games 6 and 7 at their home ballpark and the DBacks going with a bullpen game in Game 4. What did Rob have to say after that series? “That’s baseball.” He needs to take his soft, fair weather attitude to the midwest somewhere and away from a diehard sports city like Philly.
Also, last I checked, the Mets and Dodgers are tied 1-1 in the NLCS, so it’s yet to be seen how much of a “magic carpet ride” the Mets are really on, or maybe they’re just another fringe playoff team that ran into the Phillies like Arizona was.
Did the players “play hard” for him when they were on a 114-win pace?
Just wondering.
Don’t mess with the narrative maker!
Don’t go back to London. They weren’t the same team after that trip.
Don’t go back to Rockville
There’s no question Rob Thomson is an experienced baseball man, but he may not be the right manager for this Phillies team. There are too many stars on this team, and Thomson’s laid-back demeanor may be sending these guys the wrong message. The Phils need a manager who is in total control of every player and every game situation and, in his years as the Phils’ manager, Thomson has never been accused of being a control freak. At the end of the day, and another disappointing season, Thomson remains a nice guy – and we all know what Leo Durocher said about nice guys. For any newbies reading, nice guys finish last. By resigning Thomson through 2026, the Phils have made clear their plans. The Phils plan to go with their core for one more season and, if they don’t win the world series next season, they will undoubtedly clean house. That probably includes Thomson. Alternatively, if the Phils don’t show signs of being able to win it all before next season’s trade deadline, they’ll probably trade pending free agents, like Schwarber and Realmuto, and anyone else they feel no longer fits in their long-term plans. To give the 2025 season the old college try once again, the Phils will probably spend megabucks to land Juan Soto and trade away young talent for a new closer like Miller or Helmsley. They may also trade Walker and finally add to the starting rotation their highly regarded prospect, Andrew Painter, who is showing signs of having favorably responded to Tommy John surgery. The Phils could, of course, go in a different direction. Instead of overpaying for Soto, they could acquire switch-hitting free agent Santander to play left field and Teoscar Hernandez to play center field. If Hernandez wants to stay in LA, the Phils could trade for the likes of center fielder Luis Robert Jr., Kyle Tucker or Jake McCarthy. At the same time, they could trade for a quality catcher to share time behind the plate with the aging Realmuto. If they were to trade the $20 million-a-year Schwarber who has been the the Phils’ exclusive DH for the past 3 seasons, older guys like Realmuto, Turner, Harper, Castellanos and Bohm could form a DH-by-committee, which would give the Phils much more offensive flexibility and eliminate the need to carry an expensive position player who was unable to contribute to the team defensively. In truth, resigning Thomson may have been the only thing the Phils were able to do at the present time, given the current unavailability of any experienced managerial talent of note. If 2025 proves Durocher right again, nice guy Thomson may become but another page in Phillies history, and the Phils may be forced to undergo yet another inconveniently-timed metamorphosis. Phillies players thereafter may start resembling more the hard-nosed Richie Ashburn’s, Chase Utley’s and Pete Rose’s of Phillies lore and less the current flower children whose walk-up songs, chest wiggling, and constant affirmations of clubhouse harmony seem more appropriate for a farm in Woodstock than a professional baseball stadium.
Hey buddy.
This is way too long.
Maybe save it for late night talk radio.
raisin, Been there, done that!
No one is reading all that
Sooooo…. Joe Girardi?
onthebucks;
Tell us how you know about Mr. Thompson’s “laid-back demeanor”.
You in the clubhouse? In the team meetings? See how he handles individual players alone in his office?
–
Here are the last 8 Managers of the Year:
Skip Schumaker
Brandon Hyde
Buck Showalter
Terry Francona
Gabe Kapler
Kevin Cash (twice)
Don Mattingly
Here are the managers that took their teams to the WS the last 4 years:
Bruce Bochy
Torey Lovullo
Dusty Baker
Rob Thomson (I know – he’s the reason they lost the series)
Brian Snitker
Dusty Baker
Dave Robeerts
Kevin Cash
–
See any Leo Durocher types there?
MLB has changed. Players rights and attitudes have changed.
The only commonality on the managers listed above is that MLBTR had posters on here that ran down every single one of them at the time. And in some cases, the poster was me. It’s another reason that makes following MLB so much fun.
sam, Thomson has a laid-back demeanor. He always has, but I’m sure you knew that already. Players rights and attitudes have changed – on some teams more than others. Teams like the Yankees and Dodgers look and act like professional organizations on the field. The Phillies look and act like a traveling circus. Players gladly give up their rights to have long hair and beards to play with the Yankees. Why do you think that is? I’ve been a Phillies fan since the days of Connie Mack Stadium, but I call it like it is. If the Phillies broadcasters and Philly sports media did the same, the Phils might actually win a world series one of these days. It’s time to stop pretending the Phillies are ready and able to win a world series any time soon.
Omfg, they can’t win because of their long hair??! They likely win in 23 if rob wouldn’t have kept running Kimbrel out there who everyone knew was shot and playing with an 8 man lineup.
Thompson = Ozark > Mauch
Ozark > Mountain > Daredevils
I don’t know that extending him for 1 additional season is expressing confidence in him. Seems more like a “don’t want to make him look like a lame duck manager next season, and we have the money to pay out his 2026 season if we fire him in the next 12 months” deal.
Boo!! Says Philly