MLBTR Podcast: The Alex Cora Situation, Lucas Giolito Signs, And The Phillies Fire Rob Thomson
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Red Sox firing manager Alex Cora and several coaches (0:30)
- The Padres signing Lucas Giolito (27:30)
- The Phillies firing manager Rob Thomson and releasing Taijuan Walker (39:00)
- The Guardians promoting prospect Travis Bazzana (59:45)
Check out our past episodes!
- Kevin McGonigle, The Padres’ Franchise Valuation, And Edwin Díaz To Miss Time – listen here
- Lenyn Sosa Traded, And Injury Concerns For The Astros, Cubs And Orioles – listen here
- Previewing The 2026-27 Free-Agent Class – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images
Alex Cora Not Expected To Pursue Another Managerial Opportunity This Season
It doesn’t appear as if Alex Cora will be in another major league dugout in 2026. Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe writes that the former Red Sox skipper plans to spend time with his young sons in his native Puerto Rico rather than jump directly back into managing. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported similarly this morning, writing that Cora’s current focus is on his family.
The 2018 World Series champion could have landed a new opportunity within hours of being fired by the Sox on Saturday. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported this morning that the Phillies offered their managerial position to Cora before settling on Don Mattingly as interim skipper for the rest of 2026. Philly president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski more or less confirmed as much in a press conference this afternoon.
Dombrowski stopped short of saying there was a formal contract offer on the table, but he confirmed the job would have been Cora’s had he wanted it. Dombrowski told reporters (including Mark Feinsand of MLB.com) that he discussed the position with Cora on Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after the Boston change.
“We talked about potentially taking the job. I had told him I had really come to the conclusion at that point that if he took it, I was going to make a change. I thought that he might take it, but as time went on over the next day into Monday morning, it was apparent from his perspective that he wanted to take time with his family,” Dombrowski said.
Cora and Dombrowski have a strong relationship from their time together with the Red Sox. They overlapped between 2018-19, winning the aforementioned championship in the first season. Boston parted ways with Dombrowski at the end of a disappointing ’19 campaign. They fired Cora a few months later after his role in the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing operation became public. Cora served a one-year suspension, and the Red Sox re-hired him after the 2020 season.
The second stint lasted five-plus seasons and made him one of the sport’s highest-paid managers. Cora’s most recent extension runs through 2027 and reportedly pays him $7.25MM annually. The Red Sox will remain on the hook for that money if Cora doesn’t take another managerial position in the interim.
If another team hires him before his deal with Boston expires, his new salary would be subtracted from the Red Sox’s obligations. However, Feinsand reports that any hiring team is required to pay “fair market value” for an MLB manager — at least a few million dollars — to hire Cora rather than signing him for virtually nothing and leaving Boston on the hook for the entire sum. Of course, that’d be a moot point if Cora decides not to pursue managerial jobs in 2027 either.
Cora’s conversation with Dombrowski about a potential reunion in Philadelphia came before the team announced they were firing Rob Thomson. Dombrowski decided a change was necessary and went through with that dismissal even after Cora passed. They informed Thomson of the decision on Tuesday morning, roughly two hours before they made the formal announcement (link via Matt Gelb of The Athletic).
Thomson also met with reporters on Tuesday. He said he had no issue with Dombrowski’s conversation with Cora while he was still the manager. “I think Dave’s just doing his due diligence,” Thomson said (via Gelb). “He had made up his mind and he was going to move forward. … Dave and I have a close relationship, but that doesn’t stand in the way of him doing the right thing for the organization. I respect that.” The former skipper spoke highly of the team and said he’d “seriously entertain” an advisory position down the line if the Phillies make him an offer (via Lochlahn March of The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Phillies Fire Rob Thomson, Name Don Mattingly Interim Manager
There’s a major shakeup in Philadelphia. The Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson on Tuesday morning. Don Mattingly is the interim skipper, with the team’s press release saying he’ll hold that position for the remainder of the 2026 season. Philadelphia promoted third base coach Dusty Wathan to replace Mattingly as bench coach while calling up Triple-A manager Anthony Contreras as third base coach.
Philadelphia is the second struggling big-market team to make an early managerial change. The Red Sox dismissed Alex Cora and much of their coaching staff over the weekend. The Phillies didn’t overhaul the staff to the same extent, but it’s a major change nonetheless. They’ll hope it’ll light a fire under an underperforming team that is out to a 9-19 start, tying them with the Mets at the bottom of the National League.
It’s easy to connect the dots given the timing of the firings. Phils president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was leading the Red Sox’s front office when Boston first hired Cora in 2017. The Sox won the World Series a year later. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the Phillies offered the job to Cora, who declined while citing a desire to spend more time with family. Cora’s deal with Boston paid him upwards of $7MM per season through 2027, so he’s well positioned financially to take some time away if that’s indeed his preference.
The Phillies decided a change was needed even if Cora weren’t interested. Mattingly seems set to handle through the job through the end of the season. Of course, he has an even stronger tie with the Philly front office. His son Preston is Philadelphia’s general manager, the #2 in baseball operations underneath Dombrowski.
The firing ends Thomson’s three-plus year run leading the club, one that was highly successful overall. He was initially hired on an interim basis when the Phils dismissed Joe Girardi in June 2022. Thomson took over a team that was seven games below .500 and 12 back in the NL East. They went 65-46 the rest of the way to snag the NL’s final playoff spot, then tore through the Senior Circuit playoff field to win the pennant. Even after they dropped a six-game World Series at the hands of the Astros, it was an easy call for the Phillies to commit to Thomson as the full-time skipper.
It’d be too simplistic to attribute the ’22 turnaround solely to the managerial change. The Phils dismissed Girardi because they had a talented roster that wasn’t performing to expectations. Some kind of improvement was probably inevitable either way. The Phillies’ regular season results continued to improve during Thomson’s three full seasons at the helm. They respectively won 90, 95, and 96 games between 2023-25. Philadelphia has won the NL East in each of the last two seasons and comfortably made the playoffs all three years.
Despite the regular season trend, their postseason performances have gone in the wrong direction. Philadelphia lost a seven-game NLCS to the Diamondbacks in 2023. They’ve been bounced in the Division Series (by the Mets and Dodgers, respectively) in each of the past two years. Philly’s front office has pointed to the unpredictability of short series in remaining committed to Thomson as manager. They signed him to an extension running through 2027 last December.
Things changed quickly. The Phillies couldn’t have started this year much more poorly. They’ve only won two series, and those came against the Nationals and Rockies. They’ve lost each of their past six series, including a 10-game losing streak that dropped them from .500 to 8-18 last week.
The issues have been up and down the roster. Cristopher Sánchez has been their only effective starting pitcher. The offense has scored 102 runs, above only the Giants and Mets. They’re 29th in batting average and on-base percentage while ranking 17th in home runs. Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Brandon Marsh have been their only above-average hitters. They’ve gotten particularly poor starts from Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott, while offseason signee Adolis García hasn’t provided much in right field.
Philadelphia’s recent success has been built on excellent starting pitching and a potent lineup. They’ve had a difficult time building strong bullpens and are one of the league’s weakest defensive teams. The rotation should benefit from Zack Wheeler’s return from thoracic outlet surgery and more consistency from Jesús Luzardo, but they’re lacking depth beyond their top five arms. The Phillies let Ranger Suárez walk in free agency, relying on Andrew Painter to step into the rotation. Painter’s performance has been up and down, while Aaron Nola continues to be much too susceptible to home runs. They pulled the plug on Taijuan Walker last week, releasing the struggling righty once Wheeler returned.
The front office certainly deserves some of the blame for the underwhelming start. That said, it’s not as if Thomson’s managerial tenure was uniformly positive. He came under some fire for his in-game tactics in the playoffs and had a rift with Nick Castellanos, who publicly criticized the skipper’s communication skills. Veteran reliever Matt Strahm reportedly also voiced some displeasure internally with how Thomson handled his bullpen last season. The front office sided with Thomson in both instances, releasing Castellanos and trading Strahm to Kansas City.
It now falls on Mattingly to lead a turnaround, one the Phillies hope will resemble their 2022 season. They’ve already dropped 10.5 games behind the red hot Braves in the division race. Getting to 90 wins would require them to play at a 60.4% clip (a 98-win pace) for the rest of the season. It’s doable but leaves them without much margin for error, and another few weeks of play this poor would dig a hole from which they’d have almost no chance to recover.
The 65-year-old Mattingly is in his first season in Philadelphia. He spent the previous three seasons working as John Schneider’s bench coach in Toronto. The Jays came up just shy of winning a World Series last year and hoped to bring back their entire coaching staff. Mattingly declined, preferring the Philly opportunity. It seems fair to assume he didn’t expect to be the interim manager within a month of joining one of the NL’s perennial contenders, but that’s the situation in which he finds himself.
Mattingly has 12 seasons of managerial experience. He led the Dodgers from 2011-15 and skippered the Marlins between 2016-22. He predictably had much more success in Los Angeles, leading the team to three division titles. Mattingly made the postseason just once in seven seasons in Miami, a 31-29 showing during the shortened 2020 schedule. He holds an 889-950 record as a major league manager.
Wathan assumes his highest-profile role on the Philly staff. The 52-year-old has been in the organization for nearly two decades. He worked his way up as a minor league manager and has been the third base coach since the 2018 season. Wathan has held that position under Gabe Kapler, Girardi, and Thomson. Contreras now takes that role for his first MLB coaching opportunity. He has managed Triple-A Lehigh Valley for the last four-plus seasons.
Matt Gelb of The Athletic was first on Thomson’s dismissal and Mattingly being named interim manager. Respective images courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images.
Phillies Hire Don Mattingly As Bench Coach
The Phillies announced Monday that they’ve hired Don Mattingly as the new bench coach to manager Rob Thomson. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acknowledged last month that he’d spoken to Mattingly about the vacancy. Last year’s bench coach, Mike Calitri, changed roles this offseason and became the team’s major league field coordinator. Mattingly has spent the past three seasons as the Blue Jays’ bench coach but chose not to return in that role for the 2026 season as he instead explored other opportunities.
“I am excited to welcome Don Mattingly to Philadelphia,” Thomson said in this morning’s press release. “Having known Don for years and having worked closely with him in New York, I know that his knowledge of the game and his character make him a great addition to our tremendous coaching staff.”
Notably, Mattingly joins an organization that employs his son, Preston, as its general manager. The younger Mattingly isn’t the top decision-maker in Philadelphia’s front office — Dombrowski still holds hat role as the team’s president — but he’s a key figure in baseball operations who spent several seasons as the team’s director of player development and an assistant general manager before being elevated to his current post.
As Thomson noted in his comment, the two men worked together in the Yankees organization, though they didn’t overlap on the team’s major league coaching staff. Thomson actually succeeded Mattingly as bench coach in 2008, after Mattingly accepted an offer to become Joe Torre’s hitting coach in Los Angeles. He’d been in the running for the managerial vacancy in the Bronx that ultimately went to Joe Girardi, who named Thomson his new bench coach.
Even if they weren’t on the same big league staff, however, Mattingly and Thomson worked together with the Yankees. Mattingly was a minor league instructor prior to being added to the big league staff as hitting coach in 2003. During that time, Thomson worked both as a minor league manager and as a key figure in the Yankees’ player development department, where the two aligned to work with the Yankees’ up-and-coming talent.
In addition to his work as a bench coach and hitting coach between the Bronx and L.A., the now-64-year-old Mattingly spent five years managing the Dodgers and another seven managing the Marlins. He then jumped to the Jays, where he was first hired as bench coach and then had the title “offensive coordinator” added to his position. In that role, Mattingly oversaw the hitting coaches up and down the entire organization.
Now bound for Philadelphia, Mattingly will serve as Thomson’s top lieutenant. There’s been some speculation as to how long Thomson will continue to manage, but he signed a one-year extension through the 2027 season following the 2025 campaign, so he’s locked in for at least two more years. Mattingly is actually two years older than Thomson, so he’s not exactly the prototypical younger heir-apparent in waiting, but if Thomson does step away after his current contract, the Phillies would have an experienced option in the organization already. If not, Mattingly simply adds another seasoned coach to a veteran staff full of several well-regarded names.
Phillies Extend Rob Thomson
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
Phillies Notes: Alvarado, Kemp, Thomson, Calitri
The Phillies are now in offseason mode after getting dropped by the Dodgers in the NLDS. The outfield is going to be a key focus this winter but there are other details to be ironed out. On left-hander José Alvarado, the Phils will have to decide between a $9MM club option or a $500K buyout, a net $8.5MM decision. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said yesterday, per Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, that he would be surprised if Alvarado is not back on the roster next year.
That’s not a firm commitment but it certainly seems like the most likely outcome is Alvarado’s option being picked up. That always seemed likely, as the option price is fair for a pitcher of Alvarado’s quality. On the other hand, it was reasonable to wonder if Alvarado’s 80-game PED suspension annoyed the club enough that they would let him walk. But it seems they will move past that and bring the lefty back for another year.
Dating back to the start of 2022, Alvarado has given the Phils 180 innings with a 3.25 earned run average. His 10.2% walk rate in that span was high but he struck out 31.7% of batters faced and got grounders at a strong 50.1% clip. He earned 32 saves and 48 holds in that time. As seen on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, 15 relief pitchers got $9MM or more last winter. Even Jordan Romano, who was a big question mark after an injury-marred 2024, got $8.5MM. Given those market conditions, picking up Alvarado’s option makes plenty of sense.
Elsewhere on the roster, infielder/outfielder Otto Kemp is slated for multiple surgeries, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Gelb notes that Kemp fractured his kneecap when he fouled a ball off himself on June 17th, though he never went on the injured list. He will now be undergoing surgery to repair it, in addition to a minor surgery to clean out some damage in his left shoulder. It’s unclear what sort of recovery timeline he is facing.
Kemp made his major league debut this year and stepped to the plate 218 times. His 5.5% walk rate and 30.7% strikeout rate were both bad but he launched eight home runs. His .234/.298/.411 slash translated to a 95 wRC+, indicating he was 5% worse than league average.
In the minors, Kemp’s walk and strikeout rates have been far better, so perhaps better results can be expected going forward. It’s also possible the knee injury knocked his numbers down somewhat. He played the non-shortstop infield positions and left field, so he could be a useful utility player for the Phils.
There are also some noteworthy developments related to the Philadelphia coaching staff. Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic was among those to cover those. The Phils are planning to hire a new bench coach to work under manager Rob Thomson this winter. Current bench coach Mike Calitri will stay on the staff but with a new title of major league field coordinator.
Back in 2022, Calitri was working for the Phils as a quality assurance coach. That summer, manager Joe Girardi was fired. Thomson, then the bench coach, was promoted to the skipper’s chair. Calitri then replaced Thomson as the bench coach.
Dombrowski also mentioned that Thomson will likely get an extension at some point. The skipper is only signed through 2026 and it was reported earlier this week that he would be back next year but clubs generally don’t like to have managers in a lame duck situation. “(Thomson) was already signed for this coming year, so it really was just a matter of moving forward and having conversations in regards to a lot of different topics with him,” Dombrowski said, per Varnes. “I do think, at some point, we talked that I would look at adding a year into his contract (this winter).”
Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images
Rob Thomson Will Return As Phillies’ Manager In 2026
The Phillies’ latest postseason exit has led to some speculation about manager Rob Thomson’s job security, but Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman of the New York Post report that Thomson is “safe for 2026” and is expected to return to lead the Philadelphia dugout next year. The team is planning a formal announcement later in the week.
As pointed out by Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Thomson is just the fourth manager in major league history to lead any team to the postseason in each of his four years on the job. He’s also only the third Phillies manager to guide the club to consecutive NL East championships.
Thomson, 62, was elevated to the manager’s post midway through the 2022 season when Joe Girardi was fired. The team’s bench coach at the time, Thomson has now famously indicated that he was actually planning to retire at the end of that 2022 season before being reinvigorated by the promotion to manager.
In three-plus seasons at the helm, Thomson guided the Phillies to a 346-251 regular season record and steered the ’22 Phillies all the way to an NL Pennant and to Game 6 of the World Series before falling to the ’22 World Champion Astros. Thomson’s Phillies reached Game 7 of the NLCS against the Diamondbacks in 2023 but have now lost in the Division Series in consecutive seasons, falling to the ’24 Mets and the ’25 Dodgers.
Prior to his time as the Phillies’ manager, Thomson spent five years as the bench coach under Girardi. He was also the Yankees’ bench coach under Girardi, holding that position from 2008-17. He’d served as a major league coach with the Yankees prior, dating back to 2003, and has also held roles in their front office (specifically in player development) in addition to various coaching positions in the Yankees’ minor league ranks.
Though some fans might’ve hoped for a change in voice after four consecutive earlier-than-hoped playoff exits, it doesn’t seem that any such sentiment exists within the clubhouse. Phillies players emphatically voiced last week — via both Lauber and The Athletic’s Matt Gelb — that Thomson has their support.
“I love Topper, man,” Harper said after the team’s heartbreaking end to the season. “He’s done a great job for us. I don’t know what the future holds. I have no idea. I think that’s a [question for president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski]. But obviously, we love Topper in here.” Teammate Trea Turner agreed wholeheartedly.
“I’ve been blessed with a lot of good managers in my career — I’ve probably played for four or five now, and they’ve all been really good — and he’s right up there with them,” said Turner. “He’s got all the qualities. He keeps it even-keeled all year long. He’s great, man. I don’t think you can ask for more out of a manager.”
Thomson is currently signed through the 2026 season. The Phillies inked him to a one-year extension last offseason — a move that prevented him from playing out the current campaign as a lame-duck manager. Perhaps they’ll go a similar route this time around, but for right now, Thomson’s contract is slated to conclude at the end of the ’26 season and is not believed to contain any kind of option for the 2027 season.
Phillies Extend Manager Rob Thomson Through 2026
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.
Phillies Notes: Realmuto, Outfield, Thomson
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke to reporters (including Matt Gelb of The Atheltic) during his end-of-season press conference today regarding the club’s plans headed into 2025 after a disappointing end to their season that saw them knocked out of the NLDS by the division rival Mets in four games. With the club’s entire lineup and starting rotation under team control for 2025, at first glance it may seem as though the Phillies don’t have many obvious places where they can improve. That won’t stop the club’s front office from looking for upgrades, however, as Gelb relays comments from Dombrowski about being “open-minded” and “exploring” possibilities when other teams inevitably come calling this winter.
That could mean making changes to the players on the roster, of course, but one possible change Dombrowski highlighted could come internally: less of J.T. Realmuto behind the plate. The 33-year-old veteran has spent the past six seasons in Philadelphia and is entering the final year of his contract with the club in 2025. The three-time All-Star finished in the top seven of NL MVP voting as recently as 2022 and has been an above average hitter in every season he’s spent with the Phillies, but also endured one of the worst seasons of his career in 2024.
The veteran backstop missed just over a month after undergoing knee surgery in June, and while he posted a solid .266/.322/.429 (109 wRC+) slash line in the 99 games he did play, he did so with lackluster defensive numbers behind the plate that stand in sharp contrast to the reputation he earned as one of the game’s elite defensive catchers earlier in his career. Realmuto’s blocking and framing were both well below average per Statcast, and Fangraphs’s Defense metric rated him as just the tenth most valuable defender of 16 catchers with at least 400 plate appearances this year. Given Realmuto’s waning defensive value behind the plate and the possibility that more rest could help him stay healthy and productive, it’s not entirely a surprise that the club would consider broaching the possibility of Realmuto taking on less of the team’s catching duties with the veteran.
With that being said, however, the possibility of Realmuto playing less frequently behind the plate raises questions about whether he’ll spent the extra time playing elsewhere in the lineup or on the bench. It’s hardly unheard of for even the most well-regarded veteran catchers to start spending more time at DH or first base as they enter their mid-30’s, with Royals veteran Salvador Perez (who played just 91 of his 158 games in 2024 at catcher) standing out as a prime example. That may be easier said than done for the Phillies, though, as the club currently has Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber installed at first base and DH on a regular basis. Both sluggers have experience in the outfield and could theoretically play left field on occasion to free up time away from catcher for Realmuto, though it’s unclear if the Phillies are willing to move either star out of their usual position to accommodate Realmuto.
Finding playing time away from catcher for Realmuto could be even more complicated depending on how the club looks to overhaul its outfield mix. Dombrowski indicated that both Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos figure to feature prominently in their outfield mix next year, but he did not offer those same guarantees to Johan Rojas after a disappointing season where he posted a lackluster 68 wRC+ in 363 trips to the plate. If the club plans to move Rojas into something closer to a fourth outfielder role, they’d have the ability to make an addition in either left or center field, depending on their willingness to move Marsh back to center on a regular basis after he started just 35 games at the position in 2024.
While a pursuit of superstar outfielder and top free agent Juan Soto would be a shock for a Phillies club that already has lots of money tied up in a number of star players, the coming outfield class is deep in interesting bats such as Tyler O’Neill, Jurickson Profar and (depending on his player option decision) Cody Bellinger who could slide into the club’s outfield mix to improve the offense. Of course, any addition to the outfield mix would only serve to further limit the club’s flexibility in playing Realmuto away from the catcher position, but that could be well worth it if it meant upgrading the offense overall.
As the Phillies ponder where to make changes this winter, one place that won’t be happening is the dugout. Dombrowski revealed earlier today that manager Rob Thomson has been extended through the end of the 2026 season, adding an additional year to a contract that otherwise would have left the skipper a lame duck headed into next season. When discussing his newest contract with reporters (including Lochlahn March of The Philadelphia Inquirer) Thomson made it clear that he expects Philadelphia to be the final stop in his lengthy coaching career. Thomson famously planned to retire following the 2022 season when he was still bench coach of the Phillies, but plans changed when the club fired then-manager Joe Girardi, promoted Thomson to the top job, and the club went on an improbable run to the World Series.
In all, the Phillies have posted a strong 250-185 record under Thomson’s management in the regular season, to go with a solid 20-11 record in postseason games after the club made it to the playoffs in all three years he’s been at the helm. In spite of all that success, however, the 61-year-old hardly seems interested in committing to a lengthy tenure in the Phillies dugout as March relays that Thomson plans to take things year-by-year after his latest contract expires following the 2026 season. That’s hardly an unheard of arrangement for veteran managers, with Rockies skipper Bud Black standing out as a notable current example of a manager who has taken a number of one-year extensions rather than work out a longer-term arrangement, including one just last week.
Phillies Extend Manager Rob Thomson
The Phillies have extended the contract of manager Rob Thomson through the 2025 season, per a team announcement. He’d previously been signed through the 2024 campaign, so this will tack another year onto his deal and prevent him from entering the coming season with lame-duck status. The Phils also announced the hiring of Dustin Lind and Rafael Pena as assistant hitting coaches. Lind was previously an assistant hitting coach with the Giants. Pena has spent six seasons with the Astros organization and most recently served as their minor league hitting coordinator.
Thomson, who turned 60 in August, spent 15 seasons as a coach between the Yankees and Phillies before finally getting elevated to his first big league managerial gig in 2022, when the Phils dismissed then-skipper Joe Giradi. Thomson, his bench coach, was expected to take over the club for the remainder of the year, but the turnaround enjoyed by the Phillies under his watch has since earned him an increasingly lengthy look as the team’s skipper.
Following Thomson’s appointment as manager in ’22, the Phillies went 65-46 to close out the season, sneaking into a Wild Card berth in the National League playoff scene. They made the most of that longshot playoff bid, toppling the Cardinals in the Wild Card series, the Braves in the NL Division Series and the Padres in the NL Championship Series. The Phils eventually came up short in a 4-2 World Series loss to the Astros, but their ascent to the Fall Classic stands as one of the more remarkable midseason turnarounds in recent memory.
Unsurprisingly, on the heels of that run and with the clubhouse rallying around Thomson as a leader, the Phillies shed the “interim” label last November and inked Thomson a to a two-year contract. The Phils enjoyed further success in 2023, once again earning a Wild Card berth and once again winning multiple postseason series. After an 87-win season in 2022, the Phils won 90 games this past season before besting the Marlins in the Wild Card round and, for a second straight season, overcoming the division-winning Braves in the NLDS. The Phillies fell in the seventh game of the NLCS against the World Series runner-up Diamondbacks.
The 35-year-old Lind, in addition to four years with the Giants organization, spent two seasons with the Mariners as a quality assurance coach and director of hitting development. Pena, 33, has served as a minor league hitting coach with the Astros in addition to coaching stints in the Arizona Fall League and the Dominican Winter League. They’ll both work underneath hitting coach Kevin Long, one of the sport’s most respected voices in that position. Long is returning for his third season as Philadelphia’s hitting coach.