Two key Phillies state the obvious: ‘Of course’ Rob Thomson should return as manager

ST. LOUIS — Zack Wheeler wasn’t asked for his endorsement. And he’d already made his feelings clear. But just in case there was any doubt about the job Rob Thomson had done, and the job the Phillies should hire him to continue to do, Wheeler wanted to make it explicit.

“He waited for his and he got his, and hopefully maybe next year he’ll be back here,” the veteran right-hander said with a coy smile. “That’d be nice.”

The context is important here.

Wheeler had just responded to a rather mundane question about Thomson’s strengths as a manager with an eloquent minute-long monologue about the unique human qualities that the unassuming 59-year-old baseball lifer had brought to the Phillies clubhouse throughout his five months as interim manager. He talked about the hours that Thomson had put in. He talked about the trust that he’d earned from players young and old. He talked about the comfort zone that Thomson had created in a clubhouse that has spent all season shouldering the heavy weight of a city’s expectations.

“He’s a special guy,” Wheeler said on Thursday. “He cares about us. He is there every single day way earlier than we are, preparing for that day and days ahead. Anybody who has your back like that, we have his back. He’s a good teacher and a good person to have in charge of our clubhouse and everything. Everybody really loves him and we like to play for him.”

Keep in mind, this was the day before the biggest start of Wheeler’s career, a moment that the veteran right-hander has been anticipating ever since Tommy John surgery cost him the chance to participate in the Mets’ 2015 World Series run. Even in normal circumstances, the day before a start is the day a lot of starting pitchers shut themselves off to the world. This was the day before Wheeler’s first playoff game, when he’ll take the mound against the Cardinals in the wild-card opener as the biggest reason to believe that the Phillies can pull off a postseason run of their own. He had much bigger things to worry about than his boss’ job status.

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Yet Wheeler also knew the question that lingered in between the lines, the question that Thomson had spent a brilliant summer and stressful September doing his best to ignore. So he cleared his throat and said it.

Not that it needed saying. If Dave Dombrowski has any flair for the dramatic, he will walk into the visitor’s clubhouse at Busch Stadium around noon on Friday and bring John Middleton with him and together announce to the 25 members of the Phillies’ roster that Thomson’s title no longer required the word “interim.” Life isn’t a Tony Danza movie, so it probably won’t happen. But the Phillies have spent all season benefiting from Thomson’s unique ability to remove pressure from their shoulders. Why not return the favor?

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“He’s just kind of that calming presence for our clubhouse,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “We had a lot of expectations going into this year and obviously we didn’t perform the way we wanted to early on and when Thomson took over he just kind of instilled that confidence in us, like, hey, I believe in you guys as a group, this is how we’re going to do things, I’m going to communicate, I’m going to put you guys out there in the best situations and I’m going to trust that you’re going to get through them. If you struggle, we’re going to get through it. I believe in you, I believe in this club, I believe in every one of these players. When you hear that from your manager, when you have a couple of bad games you’re not looking behind your back wondering whether you’re going to play the next day or whatever the case may be. He gave us all that confidence that he believes in us and that’s a big deal for a ball club, as you can see.”

Not that any of this needed to be said. The Phillies did enough talking with their play. Forget about the 65-46 record. That’s impressive, no doubt. You don’t see many teams go from eight games under .500 to 12 games above it. Even more telling is the way in which the Phillies accomplished that business. They lost their MVP candidate right fielder for two months. They lost their Cy Young candidate starting pitcher with a month to go in the season. They saw their playoff odds dwindle from 97% to below 60. Every time you thought that the real Phillies had returned, they showed you that they’d actually never left.

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That, right there, is what a good manager does. He doesn’t turn a team into something that it isn’t. He doesn’t turn a 70-win team into a 90-win team. He doesn’t take a bad team to the playoffs. What he does is allow a good team to be as good as it can be. He creates an environment in which a bunch of individuals feel comfortable and motivated and prepared. In doing so, he gives that group of individuals a rising tide of confidence that raises all ships.

The job interview is already over. It lasted five months. It doesn’t get better than Rob Thomson. He has never been a guy who will win you the introductory press conference. But he won the clubhouse, and that’s what matters.

“Yeah, of course,” Realmuto said when asked if he would endorse Thomson’s return. “I think everybody on the ballclub feels that way.”

Don’t overthink it. Listen to the guys who make the money. Give Thomson some of his own.