After a nightmarish 9-19 start, the Phillies have fired manager Rob Thomson, the club announced. Matt Gelb of The Athletic was first to report.
Don Mattingly will take over as the interim manager now that Thomson has been dismissed. Third base coach Dusty Wathan has been promoted to bench coach. Triple-A Lehigh Valley manager Anthony Contreras will be the new third base coach.
For what it's worth, the Phillies press release says that Mattingly will be interim manager for "through the end of the 2026 season."
It's an unceremonious exit for someone who was largely a very effective manager. Thomson replaced Joe Girardi on an interim basis in June of 2022, and ultimately guided a Phillies team that was 22-29 when he took over to a World Series appearance. The Phillies made the postseason in four consecutive seasons under Thomson, including winning back-to-back NL East titles in 2024 and 2025. He finishes his tenure as Phillies manager with a 355-270 regular-season record.
Nonetheless, it's not a surprising development. The Phillies snapped a 10-game losing streak — their longest since 1999 — on Saturday. But they lost again on Sunday. They are 10 1/2 games back of the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, and their minus-54 run differential is the worst in baseball.
There's a strong argument to be made that the roster constructed by Dombrowski is more at fault for the slow start than Thomson, but it's much easier to change a manager than the top baseball executive. So that's what the Phillies will do, hoping — however unlikely it may seem — that it has a similar effect as it did four years ago.
