Phillies dismiss Rob Thomson; Mattingly named interim manager

PHILADELPHIA -- Somebody had to take the fall.

So, the Phillies on Tuesday announced that they fired manager Rob Thomson, who leaves the job with the highest winning percentage (.568) of any manager in franchise history in the Modern Era (since 1900). Thomson is only the second manager in Phillies history to guide the team to four consecutive postseason appearances, but a 9-19 start this year doomed him.

Don Mattingly has been named the interim manager, with Dusty Wathan promoted to bench coach and Triple-A Lehigh Valley manager Anthony Contreras named third-base coach.

Speculation about Thomson’s job status intensified during the Phillies’ 10-game losing streak, which ended Saturday. It was the team’s longest losing streak since an 11-game skid in September 1999.

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said last Tuesday in Chicago that a managerial change is “not being pondered at this point.” His words “at this point” left him room to change his mind. Notably, the Phillies' general manager under Dombrowski is Mattingly's son, Preston Mattingly.

Dombrowski made a notable roster change on Thursday, when he released Taijuan Walker. The Phillies will pay him $15.3 million not to pitch. It was the second notable Dombrowski free-agent signing to be released this year. He released Nick Castellanos in February, paying him $19.2 million not to play.

Friday, three of Dombrowski’s top advisors flew to Atlanta to assess the state of the team. It was an unusual sight, and only emphasized the severity of the Phillies’ situation.

Saturday, hours before the Phillies snapped their 10-game skid, the Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora and several of his coaches. The move fueled instant speculation about a potential Dombrowski-Cora reunion in Philadelphia.

Dombrowski hired Cora as the Red Sox’s manager in October 2017. They won a World Series together in 2018. They remain close.

But Dombrowski on Sunday morning declined to comment on Cora. After Sunday’s loss to the Braves, Thomson voiced support for hitting coach Kevin Long, then answered a question about his own job security.

“Well, I mean, that’s natural, right?” Thomson said. “It’s normal. And I’ve never worried about that in my entire career. I worked for a guy for 28 years [Yankees owner George Steinbrenner] who, as the ‘Seinfeld’ episode will tell you, ‘Fires people like it's a bodily function,’ and it never bothered me. It didn’t. I don't have time to think about it. I’m a person that thinks about other people and what can I do to help them. And it's out of my control. So that's where I'm at.”

Kyle Schwarber was in Philly in 2022, when Dombrowski elevated Thomson from bench coach to interim manager to manager. The Phillies not only rallied to make the postseason for the first time since 2011, but they also made the World Series.

Schwarber said Sunday he doesn’t think changes were needed.

“You feel as a player, you feel responsible for that,” Schwarber said. “We’re the ones who are out there. … All of our coaches are here to support and put us in the best positions that we can [be in]. Even though we’re not playing like we feel like we should be playing, that hasn’t changed their attitudes toward us. They try to come in on a daily basis to continue to get us better, and they continue to put us in great positions to succeed.”

Schwarber thinks success will come in time.

“We’ve gone through those types of spells through different years,” he said. “Right now, it just kind of feels like we’re all grinding together. Obviously, you don’t want to be in these positions, but I feel like the more that we keep coming together, the more that we’re going to find a way out of it. The more that you keep building, building, building to it, it will be that much sweeter at the end of it. But it doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed. No guarantee. You’ve just got to keep working for it.”