The Phillies are getting the band back together. The club and manager Rob Thomson have signed an extension which runs through 2027. Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer was among those to relay the news.
The news is notable but unsurprising. Thomson took over as the Philly skipper in the middle of the 2022 campaign when Joe Girardi was fired. Since then, the club has been very successful and Thomson has received consistent praise for his handling of the star-laden roster.
The Phils finished that 2022 campaign with a modest 87-75 record but that was enough to nab a Wild Card spot. They then went on a deep postseason run, losing the World Series to the Astros in six games. They followed that up with a 90-win campaign in 2023. That led to another Wild Card spot and a trip to the NLCS. The two most recent seasons saw the Phils win 95 and then 96 games. They won the National League East in both of those, though they were felled in the NLDS each time.
The lack of postseason success seemingly hasn’t dampened the vibes from the team. Rather, it’s led to more of a “job’s not done” type of attitude. The Phils are also reportedly reuniting with designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and would like to do the same with catcher J.T. Realmuto.
The one player who has seemingly not gelled with Thomson is Nick Castellanos. The outfielder was benched for a game in June due to what Thomson referred to as “an inappropriate comment,” per ESPN. Later in the year, Castellanos publicly called out Thomson for what he called “questionable” communication. Castellanos remains on the roster but the Phils are reportedly hoping to trade or release him, which is perhaps an indication of how the club feels about the spat.
After the 2024 season, Thomson was going into the final season of his contract. Teams generally prefer their managers and front office personnel to not be in lame-duck status, so he and the Phils worked an extension running through 2026. One year later, finding themselves in the same situation, they have once again tacked an extra year onto the deal.
Though he’s relatively new to managing, Thomson has been in the game a long time and is now 62 years old. He was actually planning to retire in 2022 before getting to sit in the manager’s chair. It seems that he and the Phils are happy to keep things rolling forward but they have continually kept the deals fairly short, perhaps allowing Thomson to re-evaluate his long-term plans after each season.
For now, the Phils will opt for a good amount of continuity. As mentioned, things have generally been going quite well in recent years. Ideally, they can have another season of regular season success in 2026, perhaps with a bit of extra postseason magic.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin, Bill Streicher, Oncea-Imagn Images
Can they finally win the World Series (or at least go to the WS)
2022 says hello.
But I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell
I know right now you can’t tell
But stay awhile, and maybe then you’ll see
A different side of me
Ha, that was interesting enough for me to google it for the source. Well played.
@MLB Top 100 Commenter,
Okay, but no Nickelback lyrics, please.
Sir that’s Rob Thomas, not Nickelback 🤷♂️
Yes, Rob Thomas was a member of Matchbox Twenty.
I was just hoping to poke fun at Nickelback without having to explain myself. Obviously, an epic failure on my behalf.
Rob’s a good guy and a smart baseball man. As a Yankee fan, I’m happy he got a chance to manage and done it well, although short of a title. If they add Don Mattingly as bench coach, I might have to make the Phillies the NL team I root for (until they play the Yankees). I made the Dodgers my NL team years back, but maybe it’s time for a change!
Transition from the Jurassic to the Triassic era now complete in Philly
And here I thought it was the Funtastic Era!
In unrelated news, a couple of floor lamps and a ceiling fan were destroyed today in a batting practice incident at the home of Nick Castellanos. More to come…
@Carver: Fouling off pitches or was he chasing something that bounced in the other batter’s box? Jk…..watch several Braves chase a lot of opposite box pitches in the dirt—–Ozzie, Harris II. and sometimes Riley immediately come to mind………
@NJ – Well, the unconfirmed rumor is that he was swinging for the flat screen, but…
Bart…. shouldn’t that be Phuntastic?
Yes, I stand corrected!
I always replay the final out of the 2022 World Series in my mind.
Not the 2021 Series? Sorry, just a little joke from a Braves fan.
Yes.
Standard operating procedure in all sports. Teams are simply loathe to have managers or head coaches going into a season on the last year of a contract. Pro and college. If they decide not to keep him, eating the last year of the contract is a cost of doing business.
Dude looks like Gomer Pyle
Well golly
Shazam
Sang a mean Impossible Dream
Its Charlie Montoyo, not Rob Thomson, who is a doppleganger of Gomer Pyle
Not to worry. Donnie Baseball will be waiting in the wings.
Is there a bigger douchebag in MLB than Nick Castellanos? The floor is open for nominations.
@For Love of the Game
Rob Manfred?
+1 for Robbie … followed closely by Rendon.
I meant a player, but you win hands down!
@For Love: Framber Valdez was nominated a couple of months ago………..by his catcher.
@NashvilleJeff
Honestly, I think he’s on the decline as a pitcher. I could see maybe 3 more decent seasons for him.
Some red flags I’m looking at are that his Harder contact allowed is 46.3% (9th percentile). A slight drop in velo from his peak in 2022/2023 and he’s allowing more runners with a jump in WHIP from 1.11 to 1.24 in one year.
@York: Yeah, possibly signs of the looming age related decline. Comes for us all.
@NashvilleJeff
Mine came when I was in little league. Now I play beer league instead of Major League…
Except that his catcher said that never happened
It didn’t look that way.
I think that’s the catcher being a leader and realizing it’s best for the team for him to publicly minimize it and try to move the team on from the distraction. In the clubhouse though, I’d hope that the other players backed up the catcher and got in Framber’s face about it.
His catcher said it didn’t happen for the sake of team unity. I am sure something else was said behind closed doors.
It’s not a difficult concept to grasp.
Maybe now after angel hernandez was forcefully retired
@FLotG – Casty is simply a bit different, and he is hardly a douchebag. His teammates tend to love him and respect him, but he doesn’t wear the filters that most do with the press hanging around. He can be thoughtful and insightful and he is always authentic…for good and for bad. In essence, simply a complex human being that is playing a kid’s game in the spotlight.
Current or former? Former players, I nominate Milton Bradley.
He’s about as thoughtful and insightful as Gronk
forever giant
Wrong Robbie haha
Have a day, Phils! Good work amigos
The timing of the stories are kinda funny,,,
SCHWARBER SIGNS, thomson extended, DIAZ SIGNS.
Poor Rob, but I’m sure he’d rather not take the limelight. At least MLBTR gave him a good write-up,
Good day for Phillies fans.
Diminishing Returns? Run it back again.
I guess first round embarrassments are cool. Who new?
Sometimes it happens. You catch the wrong team at the wrong time.
Dodgers have been victim to this over the years as well. It doesn’t diminish the Phillies as a team by any means.
Bats have gone cold in the postseason for phils but RT has been a zero when it matters most in October. Awful managing in 2023, was lined up for them to win it all. Blind faith in his closer and unwilling to change his lineup at all. Dodgers and Jays the complete opposite of that mindset this year and results show.
Mike, the Dodgers front office and Dave Roberts had to learn where the balance between statistics and the eye/feel test was.
To their credit, they seem to have succeeded on that front the last couple years.
It’s a painful way to learn, but the Phillies likely are figuring it out.
Neither the Dodgers or Phillies are a “lightening in a bottle” playoff team, so the learning curve is different.
“knew”
New is the new knew. Who new?
Phillies are do-ers. Pirates are don’t-ers.
Have they done anything so far this offseason that will prevent their offense from flatlining at some point in the playoffs — as has happened four straight years????
Running it back means nothing major changes. The same players that stopped hitting are returning — a year older.
Doesn’t seem like it. Unless they trade Bohm, Marsh and Stott we are gonna have the same lineup. Casty is untradeable and will have to be cut.
I hear they are hiring Don Mattingly as bench coach , I guess for when Topper has another brain fart in the playoffs.
Oh fudge. As a Phillies fan I despise Rob Thomson Mr I make the wrong decision every time yet theres enough talent that he should’ve won already. He should’ve been fired after a 1st rd exit from playoffs. Hes a disgrace. Stubbs or Mattingly would-be much better at this point (anyone but him)
Rolling back the same exact team for the fourth year in a row along with the same manager just shows how little this ownership group wants to win. Four years is enough to determine that this core cannot win a World Series. How many times do they have to piss on the toilet seat before they finally realize the seat needs to be up?
I’m starting to feel like they are taking a page out of the old Ed Snider Flyers playbook and that is…Win enough in the regular season and playoff to keep fans believing in next year. If by chance you win a championship, great but the quest for one while remaining competitive, keeps fans spending.
He lets the players do what they like to do, doesn’t like conflict but makes the same decisions in similar scenarios in the playoffs four years in a row. “Hire that man!”
The law of diminishing returns is in full effect in Philadelphia.