Did Rob Thomson’s firing come too late? Is Alex Cora worried this Phillies’ run is over? Here’s what they’re saying.
The Phillies made a big change Tuesday, but was it the right one? Did it come at the right time? And what comes next?
The Phillies fired Rob Thomson on Tuesday after a 9-19 start that saw the club tied for the worst record in the majors.
Don Mattingly was named interim manager to replace Thomson, who led the Phillies to a National League pennant in 2022 and three consecutive 90-win seasons.
A sluggish start for the fifth-highest payroll in baseball meant something had to change, but was moving on from Thomson a step too far — or not enough? It depends who you ask.
Phillies players said before Tuesday’s win that they “felt responsible,” and Thomson even held a news conference after his firing, an unusual move, in which he said he would consider a possible return to the team in a different role. Meanwhile, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said he doesn’t have any regrets about the roster he put together.
As for the national media, here’s what they have to say about Thomson’s firing, the second managerial firing in baseball already this season …
Topper takes the blame
Phillies fans had mixed reactions in the immediate aftermath of Thomson’s firing on Tuesday. The national baseball media has a similar split on whether it was time for Thomson to go, or if the manager took the blame for an underperforming roster.
» READ MORE: Dave Dombrowski wasn’t accountable after firing Phillies manager Rob Thomson, but Topper sure was | Marcus Hayes
“I think it’s the right decision, if only 28 games too late,” Paul Hembekides said on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight podcast. “I felt like Rob Thomson’s time in Philadelphia, as manager, had expired [last October]. I felt like the balloon had popped then, when the Phillies lost to the Dodgers, in what was a fairly hotly contested series, in which I thought Rob Thomson really got out-managed by Dave Roberts.”
On MLB Network’s Intentional Talk, former Major League pitcher Ryan Dempster said a managerial change this early in the season led him to believe that the organization wanted a change to try and spark its roster, much like Thomson provided when the Phillies fired Joe Girardi in 2022.
“It just seems like nothing’s going right,” Dempster said. “That’s just the world we live in. When a team’s not playing well, the manager tends to get fired.”
Former major leaguer Jed Lowrie echoed Dempster’s opinion on MLB Network’s MLB Now, saying that Thomson’s firing would cause some of the Phillies’ players to look inward to address the team’s slide.
“Some of the at-bats, they just don’t look locked in,” Lowrie said. “Maybe everybody’s just a little too comfortable. And this was a message to those players, that you guys got to step it up. We need to shake things up. We’re putting you guys on notice. I would say, if I’m in the Phillies clubhouse as a player, and Rob Thomson, who’s well-liked around the game, gets fired, I’m starting to look in the mirror.”
Former Phillies general manager Rubén Amaro Jr. called Thomson’s firing “sad news” on social media Tuesday afternoon, and defended Thomson on NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Phillies Pregame Live ahead of the Phillies’ 7-0 win over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.
“I understand that decisions have to be made,” Amaro said pregame. “This team has not played well, and it falls on the manager. Really, to me, it’s really about the players who have not performed for him. There’s a lot of blame to be thrown around. It’s not ever, in these situations, one person. And I get it. Sometimes you are the weather vane for the organization, and that’s exactly what’s happened.”
» READ MORE: The Phillies should be better than this. But can Dave Dombrowski really have no regrets with his roster?
Alex Cora declines the call
The ties between Dombrowski and Alex Cora, who was fired by the Red Sox on Saturday, are well documented, and, as Scott Lauber reported Tuesday, Cora already turned down the opportunity to manage the Phillies — at least for now.
“He definitely was someone that the Phillies had interest in,” ESPN’s Buster Olney said on the Baseball Tonight podcast. “They did their background on Alex Cora, and I think what they learned as they were doing that was: this was really soon for him to go from being fired by the Red Sox over the weekend to taking a new job. It would be like someone who goes through an ugly divorce, and then getting remarried two or three days later.”
Cora and Dombrowski worked together in Boston, helping lead the Red Sox to the 2018 World Series before Dombrowski was fired as president of baseball operations in September 2019.
But, as Ken Rosenthal argues in The Athletic, Cora might not want to reunite with Dombrowski if the Phillies continue to struggle, signaling a potential decline for the team’s aging core.
» READ MORE: Despite being fired, Rob Thomson would ‘seriously entertain’ staying with the Phillies in a new role
“The Phillies’ position is not hopeless, not with all the talent on the roster,” Rosenthal wrote. “They entered Tuesday 10 1/2 games back in the NL East, but only 6 1/2 games out in the wild-card race. If their stars begin performing closer to their career levels, not an unreasonable expectation, they might again factor into the playoff picture.
“If not? Then this season could mark the beginning of the end of one of the great eras in franchise history. And Cora, when evaluating his options, might think twice about joining a team that isn’t what it was, and might not reach that level again.”