Rob Thomson’s turnaround of the Phillies has him in the middle of the manager of the year race

The Phillies are playing at a .672 clip under Thomson, who insists he isn't thinking about his future and having the interim tag removed.

The Phillies were 39-19 under Rob Thomson entering Wednesday's game.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published Aug. 10, 2022, 3:50 p.m. ET

When the Phillies made a managerial change on June 3, the man who decided to fire Joe Girardi and elevate bench coach Rob Thomson called a news conference at Citizens Bank Park and clung to the only thing that he possibly could in the team’s most desperate hour.

“Oh, I think we can make the playoffs,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that day. “I think we’re in a position where we can battle back to do that. I do believe that.”

Maybe he really did. But what choice did he have? At 22-29, with a franchise-record payroll approaching $240 million and stars at the top of a tottering roster, Dombrowski was more or less pot-committed to making it work, even though midseason managerial changes rarely do.

Going into this season, 174 teams since 1969 had multiple managers for more than 20 games. Fourteen of them made the playoffs. It hasn’t happened since the 2009 Colorado Rockies. At least on the outside, then, expectations for the soon-to-be 59-year-old Thomson — a well-respected, longtime coach who hadn’t managed a team since 1995 in short-season A-ball — were lower than Keith Hernandez’s Q-score this week in Philadelphia.

Well, well, well.

The Phillies were 39-19 under Thomson entering Wednesday night’s game against the Miami Marlins. They had won six games in a row and 11 of 12 — after winning Thomson’s first eight games and nine of his first 10. Not only were they in possession of a playoff spot, but they moved ahead of the Juan Soto-bolstered San Diego Padres and into the No. 5 seed, three games behind the Atlanta Braves.

And with 53 games remaining, Thomson should get consideration for the National League Manager of the Year Award, a remarkable turn of events considering he was sitting in that June 3 news conference when Dombrowski was asked if he considered other candidates for the job, including Jim Leyland.

If nothing else, the Phillies must consider removing the “interim” tag from Thomson’s job title. It can’t happen until after the season because Major League Baseball requires teams to go through an interview process. But it’s difficult to imagine an external candidate making an impression that outweighs the firsthand evidence of Thomson’s managerial chops.

“I really don’t think about it,” Thomson said this week. “If I do that, I’m going to forget about something I had to do today. I really believe that. It’s something my father always talked about: Take care of today, and tomorrow will take care of itself.”

Dombrowski couldn’t have known that things would go so well under Thomson. It was clear, though, that Thomson’s long association with Girardi as a right-hand man with both the Yankees and Phillies didn’t mean he would necessarily handle situations in the same way.

For one thing, Thomson projects calm, a contrast to Girardi’s tightly wound intensity. Thomson’s easygoing manner has put young players, such as Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott, at ease. He designates relief roles based on matchups rather than assigning specific innings, a structure that has helped avoid a run on antacid whenever the bullpen door swings open. And he values consistency. To wit: Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins have batted first and second in the order in 55 of 58 games under Thomson.

But he also has a feel for when to challenge the clubhouse. When the Phillies got swept at home by the out-of-contention Chicago Cubs after the All-Star break, Thomson issued a warning: “Don’t take anything for granted. You go in there, play your game. You get out in front, put your foot on the pedal and run over people.”

Message received. The Phillies steamrolled the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates and lowlier Washington Nationals in a pair of four-game sweeps.

Sounds like manager of the year material.

But there are other worthy candidates. Thomson’s competition figures to include:

Buck Showalter, Mets: Back in New York, he has changed the culture around the Mets. They have a seven-game lead in the NL East, and with a 105-win pace and the second-best record in the NL, a strong chance to go virtually wire-to-wire for the division title.
Oliver Marmol, Cardinals: In his first year at the helm of the Cardinals, he has St. Louis in first place despite injuries to outfielder Tyler O’Neill and Juan Yepez, left-hander Steven Matz, reliever Alex Reyes, and ace Jack Flaherty, who has missed most of the season with a shoulder injury.
Dave Roberts, Dodgers: Grass is green, the sky is blue, and the Dodgers have the best record in the league. Voters must take Los Angeles’ sustained success for granted. How else to explain Roberts’ being named top manager only once — and not since 2016?

Bob Melvin has done a nice job in his first year in San Diego. But with a 16-game deficit behind the Dodgers in the NL West, he probably needs to lead the talent-laden Padres on a strong stretch drive to cement his candidacy.

Likewise, Atlanta’s Brian Snitker is always a manager of the year consideration. But the Braves got bullied by the Mets in a five-game series last weekend in New York. His case will be weakened if the Braves don’t push for the division title.

Given where the Phillies were when Thomson took over, simply making the playoffs puts him in the running. A Phillies manager hasn’t won the award since Larry Bowa in 2001.

“[Thomson] is calm, cool and collected,” Hoskins said recently. “He’s got a poise about him. Nothing speeds up on him. I think when you have that in the driver’s seat, it kind of rubs off on the rest of your club.”

Quite clearly.