Nick Castellanos? Bryce Harper? Nope. Rob Thomson is the biggest reason the Phillies keep winning

by Marcus Hayes | Columnist
Published Oct. 14, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

Nick Castellanos possesses simple wisdom beyond his 31 years. He’s always honest and he’s usually right, but not always. Consider his assessment of Rob Thomson on Thursday night after Castellanos hit two homers in two straight games and the Phillies sent the Braves home from the NLDS:

“If we don’t win, it’s not because there’s a managerial bad decision. It’s because we didn’t play well enough.”

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Castellanos fully believes this, and it’s generally true, but not always. It wasn’t true in Game 2 on Monday, when Thomson sent Zack Wheeler out for the seventh inning when he was obviously exhausted after six. Wheeler gave up two quick runs, which sparked a comeback.

It was the only mistake Thomson made. It was amplified by Thomson’s decision to remove Wheeler prematurely in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series. For many observers, these moves define Thomson more than anything else. Too bad for them.

As much as they’re witnessing greatness in real time when Bryce Harper comes to the plate, they’re witnessing genius in action when Thomson manages these Phillies. He’s the biggest reason the Phillies made it back to the NLCS for a second straight year. During introductions before they host the Diamondbacks in Game 1 Monday night, the 46,000 Red Octoberans should give him the loudest, longest cheer.

He’s why they’re there.

NLCS: D'backs defeat Phillies, 4-3

Game 1: Phillies 5, Diamondbacks 3 | Hayes | Murphy

Game 2: Phillies 10, Diamondbacks 0 | Hayes | Murphy

Game 3: Diamondbacks 2, Phillies 1 | Hayes | Murphy

Game 4: Diamondbacks 6, Phillies 5 | Hayes | Murphy

Game 5: Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 1 | Hayes | Murphy

Game 6: Diamondbacks 5, Phillies 1 | Hayes | Murphy

Game 7: Diamondbacks 4, Phillies 2 | Hayes | Murphy

 

In a two-year span in which Wheeler and Harper have proven the Phillies’ half-billion-dollar investments in them to be a bargain, Thomson, who took over for uptight World Series winner Joe Girardi in June 2022, has proven to be the franchise’s MVP — Most Valuable Person.

“What Topper does really well is he allows the clubhouse to be the clubhouse,” said Castellanos, part of Dave Dombrowski’s $179 million upgrade from 2021 to 2022. “When he took over — Joe was the manager before then — you could tell that there was a little bit of an anxiousness. But [Thomson] went in and there was, like, no expectations. All the talent that Dave acquired in the locker room was able to relax and perform.”

That’s how the Phillies went from big-money busts early in 2022 to National League pennant winners in October. Harper’s a superhero and Wheeler’s a stud, but Girardi couldn’t win with Dombrowski’s stable. Thomson rode them to the winner’s circle, and he’s doing it again.

This season he navigated Harper’s gradual return from elbow surgery to the field, nursed a bullpen through injury and setbacks, minimized Aaron Nola’s disappointing contract year and pitch-clock battles, and waited out the disastrous first four months of Trea Turner’s 10-year, $300 million deal. Thomson did all of this without Rhys Hoskins, the team’s biggest right-handed bat and its unquestioned leader, who blew out his knee at spring training.

Thomson did it all with wry Canadian wit and complete absence of ego. Now, he’s four wins away from consecutive pennants.

The wins are his as much as anyone’s.

In a postseason in which Nola and Wheeler dominated the Marlins in the wild-card round and Castellanos, Harper, and Turner pushed the Phillies past the Braves in four games, “Topper” has been the biggest reason the Phillies are 5-1 since the season ended.

It’s important to remember that, while Thomson is a baseball lifer who paid dues in the minors, front offices, scouting trails, and coaching locker rooms, he’s been a major-league manager for only 17 months.

And no, he hasn’t been perfect. But he’s been pretty good.

» READ MORE: Nick Castellanos and the Phillies shake off ‘punch in the face’ to finish the Braves in the NLDS | Marcus Hayes

He was never better than the way he handled Ranger Suárez’s starts in Games 1 and 4 against the Braves.

Suárez struggled down the stretch, so, with a fresh and deep bullpen, Thomson had Suárez on a short leash in Game 1 on Saturday. Thomson had a choice: Tell Suárez to go all-out for three or four innings, or let Ranger be Ranger. He chose the latter. Suárez gave up one hit, one walk, and no runs in 3⅔ innings.

“We were contemplating whether to explain it to him before the game. We decided not to,” Thomson said.

Six relievers shared the final 16 outs in a 3-0 win. They weren’t perfect, but they were good enough.

Suárez earned a longer leash Thursday. He lasted five innings, gave up a solo homer to Austin Riley in the fourth inning, and left with a 2-1 lead after Castellanos homered in the fourth and Turner homered in the fifth.

“I thought Ranger was fantastic,” Thomson said. “There was no real set plan like he was only going to see 18 hitters or 15 hitters or whatever like that.”

Five relievers followed, and no, it wasn’t pretty.

Right-hander Seranthony Domínguez gave up a two-out single in the sixth, so left-hander José Alvarado entered to face lefty hitter Matt Olson, who was 1-for-7 against him. Now, he’s 1-for-8.

Alvarado got two out in the seventh then walked two Braves, and left in favor of ... All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel?

Kimbrel hadn’t pitched earlier than the eighth inning of a meaningful game since May 1, a span of 57 games. He had inherited only one runner outside of extra innings all year, on April 12, and that runner scored the winning run.

Now, in a two-run game, Kimbrel inherited two runners. He walked the first batter he faced, then coaxed a deep flyout. By “coaxed” we mean he got bailed out with a thrilling play by rookie center fielder Johan Rojas.

More on him later.

Kimbrel then came back out for the eighth. He hadn’t ended an inning and started the next one all season; in fact, he’d done that only twice in the last two seasons. He got two outs and gave way to lefty Gregory Soto. Soto got Olson to ground out, but he gave up a single to the first two hitters in the ninth. Enter ... lefty Matt Strahm?

Strahm had done pretty much everything for the Phillies — middle innings, extra inning, multiple innings, and even 10 starts — but he’d pitched in the ninth inning only once, and that was with a five-run lead.

Thursday, he faced the go-ahead run three times: fly ball, fly ball, strikeout.

Brilliant.

And all by the seat of his pants.

“When we had the lead, and we were in [certain] parts of their lineup, I felt like that was the time to go to the Alvarados and the Kimbrels, and then we’ll figure it out at the end” Thomson explained.

So, in an era of hyper-analytics and predetermined strategies, there was no plan; just numbers, and matchups and instinct.

Managing at its best.

“So it was a little unorthodox,” he said, smiling, “but we got it done.”

Thomson got it done in a lot of other areas, too.

» READ MORE: The Phillies are a different sort of NLDS champion this year. Suddenly, they are World Series favorites. | David Murphy

Thomson started light-hitting Cristian Pache in left field in Games 1 and 2 of the wild-card round to bolster the team’s defense. Pache caught sinking liners to start both games.

Since singling in his first postseason at-bat, Rojas is 0-for-20 with nine strikeouts and a walk. Thomson had to be tempted to not start Rojas in the Braves series, especially in Games 1 and 4, when Suarez faced strikeout king Spencer Strider, and runs seemed likely to be hard to come by. Nope.

“Even if he does nothing at the plate, just his defense helps the club,” Thomson said.

Thomson’s Game 2 NLDS lineup, against Braves lefty Max Fried, went left-right-right-left-right-right-left-right-right. That meant, among other things, moving No. 3 hitter Bryce Harper to No. 4, where his OPS in more than 40 points lower. The right-handers got five of the six hits and drove in all three runs Fried surrendered.

Leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber, who finished second in the majors with 47 homers and 126 walks, is 4-for-25 with no home runs and one walk in the six playoff games. But Topper won’t move him; he’s still seeing more than four pitches per at-bat, and he can be iceberg-cold in 20 at-bats and volcano-hot the next 20.

Thomson has had a feel for his players.

In Game 4 on Thursday, Thomson could have used Jeff Hoffman instead of Domínguez in the fifth or Kimbrel in the seventh, but Hoffman blew the save in Game 2 when, with a one-run lead in the eighth inning, he hit Ronald Acuña Jr. and gave up a homer to Riley.

So, no Hoffman. Not this time, anyway. Maybe next.

Just trust Topper.