(This story was updated with quotes from Dave Dombrowski and Don Mattingly.)
Rob Thomson came up about five weeks shy of his fourth anniversary as the manager of the Phillies. The 9-19 start by the Phillies cost Thomson his job as the team’s skipper on Tuesday when the Phillies announced they were making a change at manager. The Phillies have lost 12 of their last 14 games and had endured a 10-game losing skid during the stretch. Bench coach Don Mattingly, who previously managed the Marlins and Dodgers, takes over as interim manager for the remainder of the season.
“We’re talented enough, but we need to go out and do it,” Mattingly told reporters before Tuesday’s game against the Giants. “It’s not complicated for me. We need to play better baseball. We haven’t been losing unluckily. We’ve contributed to that.”
Thomson exits with a managerial record of 355-270 with the Phillies, which was his first managerial job in the majors. The Phillies hired Thomson when they fired Joe Girardi during the 2022 season. The team went 65-46 over the rest of the season and went to the World Series that season. He was initially hired to be Gabe Kapler‘s bench coach in 2018 and stayed in that position when Girardi was hired to replace Kapler.
“We just felt at this point something needed to be done,” said Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies president of baseball operations, when he met with reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Our starting pitching has not been good. We have Zack Wheeler back and that helps. But you look at this rotation and it has the potential to be one of the best in baseball. I think our bullpen is strong. Now, we haven’t hit. I couldn’t predict some of our hitters would have performed the way they have, but roster construction — I don’t think we have a gaping hole. We were prepared to go with a youngster in center field and let him grow. Same thing with (starting pitcher Andrew) Painter. I’m hopeful guys will pick it up from an offensive perspective and I think they can.”
Mattingly steps in
When he was hired as Thomson’s bench coach last December, Mattingly had said he did not want to manage again. It remains to be seen whether serving as the team’s interim manager will change his mind about managing on a regular basis. In a statement to announce the change, Mattingly was said to be taking the job through the rest of the 2026 season.
At one point, Mattingly was thought to be the heir apparent to the Yankees managerial job but was passed over for the position when Joe Torre was fired. Instead of giving the job to Mattingly, the team’s bench coach, it went to Girardi. Mattingly opted to leave the organization and joined the Dodgers where Torre had also landed as the team’s manager. Mattingly was given the reins to the Dodgers in 2011 and managed them for five seasons with a 446-353 record.
Mattingly then went on to manage the Marlins from 2016-2022, going 443-587 in his tenure there. He served as the bench coach with the American League champion Toronto Blue Jays last season. The Phillies hired him to work under Thomson following the World Series.
The dominoes fall…
With Mattingly moving from bench coach to interim manager, the Phillies are promoting Dusty Wathan from third base coach to bench coach under Mattingly. Wathan had previously been the manager for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs before taking over as third base coach.
That move left a vacancy in the Phillies third base coaching box which they have filled with Anthony Contreras, who was managing at Lehigh Valley. Contreras was in his fifth season as the IronPigs manager, which is the longest tenure of any Lehigh Valley manager. He is also the winningest manager in the team’s history with a record of 327-288.
Chris “Tank” Adamson takes over the IronPigs managerial job. Adamson was the team’s bench coach. No replacement bench coach has been named.
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