Rob Thomson’s extension brings Phillies closer to continuity Dave Dombrowski had with Jim Leyland

NASHVILLE — Even if the Phillies were on the verge of trading for Juan Soto (sorry, not happening) or signing Josh Hader (don’t count on it), Dave Dombrowski would’ve cleared his schedule at 2 p.m. Monday.

Nothing could keep him from Jim Leyland’s Hall of Fame introduction.

Dombrowski and Leyland won a World Series in 1997, as the Marlins’ GM and manager. They worked together in Miami for two years, then reunited in 2006 when Dombrowski hired Leyland to pilot the Tigers. For eight years in Detroit, they represented the model partnership of executive and skipper.

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So there was Dombrowski, on opening day of baseball’s annual winter meetings, flashing his pearly-white smile as he grabbed a second-row seat for a news conference to fete Leyland as the 23rd manager elected to the Hall of Fame.

An hour earlier, timing that was coincidental yet symbolic, Dombrowski announced what likely will be the Phillies’ biggest move of these meetings: a one-year extension for manager Rob Thomson. His contract now runs through the 2025 season, preventing him from managing next year as a lame duck.

It also brings the Phillies closer to the continuity that Dombrowski and Leyland achieved all those years, not insignificant for an organization that has been through two front-office regime changes and five managers since Charlie Manuel was let go in 2013.

“I have always felt that the best organizations in baseball also have continuity,” Dombrowski said. “When you make major adjustments consistently, you’re always starting from scratch. And then you’re trying to get back on the same page and trying to put that together.

“People talk about the Dodgers. Well, they’ve been together a long time. They talk about the Braves, they talk about the Yankees, Tampa Bay. They’ve been together a long time. Having been a couple places, for example, when we were in Detroit, we were together a long time, and you can grow as you work together.”

As Dombrowski and Thomson begin another season together, the Phillies’ growth will be subtle. They aren’t plotting a major addition to the roster. Instead, they hired assistant hitting coaches Dustin Lind and Rafael Peña to help reduce the hitters’ rate of chasing pitches out of the strike zone, an Achilles’ heel that doomed them in the NLCS.

» READ MORE: Phillies extend manager Rob Thomson’s contract through the 2025 season

Dombrowski and Thomson are an unlikely match, especially with the Phillies.

Thomson, 60, joined the organization in 2018 as the bench coach for first-time manager Gabe Kapler. He survived Kapler’s firing mostly because the Phillies hired Joe Girardi, with whom Thomson worked for several years with the Yankees.

Meanwhile, Dombrowski, 67, initially turned down the Phillies’ offer to run their baseball operations in 2020. He had just built a home in Nashville and was working to bring an expansion team here. It was only after learning that MLB wasn’t poised to expand that he came to work for persistent Phillies owner John Middleton.

And Thomson, a longtime right-hand man but never a manager, was planning on retiring after the 2022 season. He might have gone through with it, too, if not for Dombrowski’s firing Girardi after a 22-29 start and elevating Thomson to interim manager.

“One of the reasons I was thinking about retirement was it was getting a little stale for me,” Thomson said. “Ever since I stepped into this role, there’s no staleness — at all. It’s a new problem every day, new things to do every day. I’m just happy.”

Dombrowski conceded he didn’t know what to expect from Thomson in the managerial role. Initially, he recalled everyone “flying by the seat of our pants.” But the players responded to Thomson’s leadership and steady hand.

To wit: Thomson makes a point of not shuffling the lineup at the first sign of a losing streak. And while that consistency can be perceived as stubbornness by knee-jerk fans and critics, it creates confidence in the clubhouse.

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And it wasn’t only the players. Dombrowski, Thomson, and general manager Sam Fuld developed the rapport that is essential for effective front offices and field staffs. So, when the Phillies rallied to make the playoffs under Thomson in 2022, it was an easy call for Dombrowski to remove the interim tag and give Thomson a two-year contract.

“It helped when we won our first eight or nine games,” Dombrowski said, laughing. “I kind of knew right then. I was like, ‘We’re never going to lose a game with him. This is fantastic.’”

Sticking with Thomson also has enabled the Phillies to keep the staff mostly intact. Hitting coach Kevin Long will be entering his third season; pitching coach Caleb Cotham, who lives near Nashville and is attending the meetings, will go into his fourth after the Phillies cycled through four pitching coaches in the previous four years.

It extends to the front office, too. Middleton and Dombrowski are pleased with the work of farm director Preston Mattingly and scouting director Brian Barber, so they made them assistant general managers, a title bump that gives them additional responsibility but also might forestall their poaching by other organizations.

Thomson recognizes the importance of that continuity but insists he doesn’t dwell on it. After the Phillies were stunned at home in Game 7 of the NLCS, Thomson said he wasn’t worried about the prospect of going into next season with an expiring contract.

“I’ve been a lame duck for 27 years now,” he said Monday. “It’s good to know that you’ve got that extra year. But if I didn’t get it, it probably wouldn’t have bothered me.”

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Thomson didn’t ask for it, either, according to Dombrowski, who said he approached the manager last month about tacking on the extra year.

“I’m waiting to win a World Series,” Thomson said. “Then, I’m going to approach him.”

“I can’t wait,” Dombrowski laughed. “I hope it’s at the end of this year.”

If so, it will be because the Phillies finally have both the talent on the roster and the organizational infrastructure to support it.