Rob Thomson and Dave Dombrowski have been brilliant in guiding the Phillies back to the playoffs

The Phillies on Friday promoted 22-year-old slider monster Orion Kerkering to bolster their bullpen in this fall’s Red October run. Kerkering began this season at low-A Clearwater. Sixteen months ago he was pitching for the University of South Florida, 30 miles east of the Phillies’ spring training site.

He throws 100 mph and he fires his slider whenever he wants, and he has thrown 53⅔ high-pressure innings, so this might be a bit rushed. But this is what winning clubs do. They throw every resource they have at winning in the postseason. This year. Today.

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This is what president Dave Dombrowski and manager Rob Thomson do. They set out on Valentine’s Day to win games at Halloween. And this season, they’ve done a magnificent job.

Along with their numerologists, general manager Sam Fuld and his assistant Ned Rice, Thomson and Dombrowski have incorporated analytics and gut instinct and a little hope and prayer to bring the Phils to an almost certain playoff spot and the likely top wild-card spot.

Many will never forgive Thomson for pulling ace Zack Wheeler in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the World Series, at which point Jose Alvarado surrendered a homer that spelled the Phillies’ end. Those folks are absolutists.

There are two ways to look at what happened with the Phillies last season: Either a No. 6 seed got really hot and a little lucky and made it to the World Series, or a powerhouse ballclub underachieved for five months before playing proper baseball the final two. Logically, given the way the 2023 season unfolded, the former perspective makes more sense.

Face it: The Phillies weren’t great last year. They weren’t as bad as the 1987 champion Twins, who had a negative run differential, or the 2006 champion Cardinals, who finished just five games above .500, but they weren’t the best team in the National League. They just got clutch play down the stretch, and things fell right for them.

They got better this year, thanks to added experience and added talent and, frankly, better management. They have a chance to reach the World Series again. For that, they can thank Dombrowski and Thomson. Yes, they have a talented roster. Yes, John Middleton is a generous, aggressive owner. But between them they have decades of experience when it comes to winning in the major leagues; Dombrowski built two World Series winners and Thomson was with the Yankees in various capacities for five of their championship runs.

They had a full toolbox, and they used all of their tools effectively.

Dombrowski spent $300 million on shortstop Trea Turner, hoping Turner could provide a more traditional leadoff performance in the No. 1 or No. 2 hole. Turner hit .242 with a .673 OPS in his first 101 games. Thomson dropped him in the lineup. He had hit .320 with a 1.015 OPS in his next 48 games entering the weekend, and he had risen back to the top of the lineup.

He won’t supplant Kyle Schwarber, whose offense is an offense to traditionalists. Schwarber led off last season and hit just .218, but his 46 homer runs led the National League. Thomson hated to put him back on top of the lineup this season, but after Schwarbs hit .160 with a .699 OPS through his first 56 games, Thomson relented. Schwarber had hit .215 with a .879 OPS in his 96 games since moving back to the leadoff spot. He had 45 bombs, too.

Both Dombrowski and Thomson kept their faith that $100 million free agent Nick Castellanos would rebound from his stage-fright 2022 season, when he hit a toothless .263 with 13 home runs. Indeed, Castellanos entered the weekend at .274 with 28 homers and a career-high 103 RBIs. Further, the work Thomson and his staff have done on Castellanos’ defense has been nothing short of miraculous; his game-saving double-play Wednesday against the Braves was the highlight of the season.

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There’s a viable argument that Bryson Stott can claim about a half-dozen of those, but again Thomson’s guidance and Dombrowski’s strategy have helped make Stott a cornerstone of the future. When Dombrowksi acquired Turner it moved Stott from short to second base, where he has shone. It also lessened the pressure on the second-year player, who entered 2022 as a left-handed platoon third baseman but exits 2023 as an everyday rising star and the best grinder on the team.

There is so much more.

Alec Bohm has become such a proficient third baseman that his inevitable transfer to first base has been put on hold for a decade. They have a long-term answer in center field thanks to Dombrowski’s trade for Brandon Marsh last summer and their faith in athletic Johan Rojas this summer.

Dombrowski stole days of extra rest for his flagging starters when he acquired Michael Lorenzen at the trade deadline, and while Lorenzen might never again come close to pitching like he did in his no-hitter Aug. 9, he went 4-2 and devoured 43 front-end innings that a well-worn Wheeler, an exhausted Aaron Nola, young Cristopher Sanchez, flagging Taijuan Walker, or inconsistent Ranger Suarez didn’t have to pitch. Dombrowski and Thomson created a six-man rotation in early August that should pay dividends in the depths of October.

All season long Thomson had to deal with injury absences and the returns of Suarez, Alvarado, and setup man Seranthony Dominguez, planning for them to peak at the end of September. It’s looking good.

Finally, in the middle of a season, he had to make 30-year-old right fielder Bryce Harper a part-time first baseman with a reconstructed elbow and a bad back. Finally, fittingly, 35-year-old closer Craig Kimbrel is an All Star again.

Not everything went perfectly. Castellanos slumped, Kimbrel skidded, Harper lacks power, catcher J.T. Realmuto looks lost, and the bullpen is anything but settled and fearsome. Maybe they shouldn’t have dangled a major-league spot at No. 1 prospect Andrew Painter, who blew his arm out in spring training.

But that sort of thinking would have kept Johan Rojas in double A this year instead of in center field, where he’s been their best outfielder since Garry Maddox, and it would have kept Kerkering from this early chance at living up to his stellar given name.

If nothing else, Thomson and Dombrowski like to give their stars a chance to shine.