The Phillies will open up a three-game series with the San Francisco Giants Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park, and it appears Rob Thomson will still be the manager.
Prior to each game, the Phillies baseball communications staff makes media aware of when the clubhouse will open prior to a game and when the manager will speak. The Phillies did send out a notice this evening of when Thomson will speak tomorrow.
That would seem to suggest that, despite heavy speculation he wouldn't survive the off day, Thomson will continue to to manage the team for at least another day. Surely, the public relations staff knew that putting out the notification would draw attention. They could have waited until Tuesday morning to alert the media of when Thomson would talk if there was any question about whether a change in manager was coming.
Of course, just because it seems that Thomson will continue on doesn't mean that someone else won't be fired. (It also doesn't mean that he couldn't be fired in the near future if things don't turn around.) However, the other logical fall guy would be hitting coach Kevin Long. Not only did Matt Gelb of The Athletic noted that Long received a new three-year deal last offseason, but Thomson issued a pretty strong defense of him after Sunday's loss to the Atlanta Braves:
Rob Thomson: “Kevin [Long] is one of best in the game. There’s a couple of Hall of Famers out there that will tell you that.”
(Via @NBCSPhilly) pic.twitter.com/kOIB81DJ8X
— OnPattison (@OnPattison) April 26, 2026
It may be that despite a nightmarish 9-19 start, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski isn't ready to make a drastic move yet. Dombrowski said last week that he wasn't considering a managerial change, though acknowledged if he was, he wouldn't say it. For reference, he fired Joe Girardi and made Thomson the interim manager on June 3, 2022. Tomorrow will be April 28. But the risk the Phillies run is being out of the playoff picture altogether by June 3 this year if they continue to play like this.
