Phillies players ‘love Topper,’ but history shows replacing Rob Thomson might be the easier way to make a change

After Rob Thomson managed with Midas’ touch Wednesday night to keep the Phillies’ season alive for one more game, someone noted the scrutiny that he has received for every move and decision across four postseasons.

“I have?” he said in a classic deadpan.

Cue the laugh track.

Nobody laughed one night later. Not after the big bats fell silent again, and Orion Kerkering threw it all away, and the Phillies came up 10 wins shy of their ultimate goal for a second year in a row.

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The emotions were still too raw. It was too soon for jokes, even gallows humor. So, as the Phillies milled about their tight quarters at Dodger Stadium and braced for a cross-country flight home, Thomson fulfilled his postgame media obligations and got back to his players, especially Kerkering.

Everything else, including his future, could wait.

“I’ve got 60 people in there that are brokenhearted right now,“ Thomson said. ”I’m thinking about that more so than my job right now.”

Fair enough.

Rest assured, though, Thomson’s status will be among the first items to come up over the next few days, as owner John Middleton and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski plow forward in the wake of another October disappointment.

Thomson, 62, is under contract for 2026. (The Phillies gave him a one-year extension after the 2024 divisional round loss to the Mets to prevent him from returning this season as a lame duck.) And he has had a remarkable run since being elevated, on an interim basis, to replace deposed Joe Girardi on June 3, 2022.

Consider:

“These last four years,” Thomson said in September, “have been the most fun I’ve had in my 40 years in baseball.”

And it almost didn’t happen. Thomson planned to retire in 2022 before the Phillies elevated him to the manager seat.

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But suddenly, the Phillies are at a crossroads. Because for all of their regular-season success, the 2022 National League pennant was a long time ago. Since they won Game 5 of the 2023 NL Championship Series in Arizona, they are 2-8 in the postseason, including 1-5 at home.

And there are only so many changes the Phillies can make to the roster. They have $170 million committed to eight players (Zack Wheeler, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, Nick Castellanos, Taijuan Walker, Matt Strahm, and Cristopher Sánchez). Jesús Luzardo, Jhoan Duran, Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, and Brandon Marsh are due for raises through arbitration.

Many rival team officials believe Middleton will do whatever it takes to bring back Kyle Schwarber in free agency. Given how much the pitchers rely on J.T. Realmuto, it’s tough to imagine the Phillies without him, even if it’s rarely good business to re-sign a catcher who will be 35 next season.

It’s fair, then, to wonder if the manager’s office is an easier place to make a change.

“I love Topper, man,” Harper said. “He’s done a great job for us. I don’t know what the future holds. I have no idea. I think that’s a Dombrowski question. But obviously, we love Topper in here.”

Middleton doesn’t only own the Phillies. He’s an unofficial team historian. He can’t help it. As a child of the ‘60s in Philadelphia, it’s in his blood.

Eight months ago, Middleton sat in his spring-training office in Clearwater, Fla., and likened this Phillies run with the late ‘70s teams that lost in the NLCS three years in a row before finally winning it all in 1980.

“Philadelphia,” he said, “has seen this play before.”

But as Middleton surely knows, the manager at the start of the Mike Schmidt Era run of contention wasn’t around for the World Series parade.

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Never mind that Ozark piloted back-to-back-to-back NL East titles from 1976-78. Or that he was popular with the players. The Phillies went 2-9 in the postseason on Ozark’s watch. They stumbled in 1979, and he got fired at the end of August.

Fair or not, Dallas Green replaced Ozark, bringing a more critical voice and demanding style to the office.

Coincidentally or not, with a nearly identical core of players — Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Bob Boone, Greg Luzinski, Garry Maddox, and beginning in 1979, Pete Rose — the Phillies finally got over the October hump.

“Dallas was the right guy at the right time,“ Bowa said a few years ago. ”Danny would never confront you in front of people and say, ‘You’re not as good as you think you are. You guys are overrated.’ Dallas did that. He brought it to our attention just like that. Whereas Danny would call you in his office and say, ‘You need to pick it up,’ Dallas put it out there in front of everybody. That got people’s attention."

Indeed, sometimes a different voice is required.

But it’s not clear the Harper Era Phillies need a change in tenor. If anything, they benefit from Thomson’s steady-Eddie style and low-key demeanor. They even respond to it.

» READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber has a strong MVP case. History shows being a DH will likely cost him.

Shortly before Game 3 Wednesday night, Thomson called a meeting in the clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. It took only a few minutes, barely long enough to qualify as an actual meeting. His message: Go 1-0 today; don’t worry about tomorrow.

And after the Phillies staved off elimination with a homer-filled 8-2 victory, several players recounted one line from Thomson’s brief speech.

“Don’t try harder,” he said. “Trust harder.”

Thomson also demonstrated empathy for Kerkering after the devastating error, waiting in the dugout to console the 24-year-old righty, the Phillies’ youngest player.

“I feel for him,” Thomson said, “because he’s putting it all on his shoulders.“

Said Turner: “I’ve been blessed with a lot of good managers in my career — I’ve probably played for four or five now, and they’ve all been really good — and he’s right up there with them. He’s got all the qualities. He keeps it even-keeled all year long. He’s great, man. I don’t think you can ask for more out of a manager.”

Back to those second-guessed postseason decisions.

It happens to every manager, especially in modern baseball, when analytics suggest more aggressive bullpen deployment — and often, prescripted decisions on which pitchers to use and when. In October, managers tend to put their thumb on the scale more than usual.

Until he wins a championship, Thomson may never live down Game 6 of the 2022 World Series. With two on, one out, and the Phillies trailing by one run in the sixth inning, he pulled Wheeler after 70 pitches and brought in lefty José Alvarado, who promptly allowed a three-run homer to lefty-hitting Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez.

» READ MORE: What Phillies manager Rob Thomson says he has learned in the aftermath of controversial World Series pitching decision

“Part of this job is that you make decisions,” Thomson said the other day. “You plan it out. It’s not like we’re throwing stuff up in the air. But you plan it out. If it doesn’t work, then, yeah, there’s criticism there. That’s just part of the gig. It really is.”

This time around, Thomson faced the usual criticism over pitching decisions. In Game 1, most notably, he let David Robertson begin the seventh inning after recording the final out of the sixth, even though the 40-year-old righty hadn’t done an “up/down” appearance, in pitching parlance, since coming off his couch to sign with the Phillies in mid-July.

But the move that really burned up the sports-talk phone lines was The Bunt in Game 2.

» READ MORE: J.T. Realmuto's value to the Phillies goes far beyond his bat.

It has already been analyzed and litigated, discussed and debated. Trailing 3-2 in the ninth inning, with the lead-footed Castellanos as the tying run on second base and nobody out, Thomson called for Stott to bunt.

The Dodgers played it perfectly. Third baseman Max Muncy fielded the bunt and shortstop Mookie Betts sprinted to third in the “wheel play.” Muncy threw to Betts, who made a great tag on Castellanos, and a Phillies rally was blunted.

“At the end of the day, they made an aggressive play and they made it work,” Thomson said. “It was a good play.”

Regardless, Thomson managed for the tie rather than going for the win. He was passive when aggressiveness was required.

Frustrating? Sure.

Fireable? Not in isolation.

Besides, Thomson’s pitching strategy in Game 3 extended the season. Nola started and got six outs before Ranger Suárez recorded the next 15 outs. The Phillies got through the problematic sixth and seventh innings with a 3-1 lead because they didn’t have to use less reliable Robertson or Kerkering.

“He does a good job of [blending] old school/new school, where he does some of the analytics but he also has that old-school feel to him,” Turner said. “I think sometimes certain managers get one way or the other, and that’s kind of their whole identity. I feel he has a lot of qualities that pertain to both sides.

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“So, I think that benefits him, benefits us, helps the newer players coming up and helps the older guys we have kind of blend together. I think he does a good job of that.”

It will all be part of the discussion over the next few days.

“Again,” Thomson said, “it’s out of my control. I’m not even thinking about it.”