Rob Thomson Fired as Phillies Near Last in NL Standings After World Series Run in 2022

The Rob Thomson era has come to a close in Philadelphia.

The Phillies fired their manager on Tuesday, according to Matt Gelb of The Athletic, following a disappointing 9-13 start to the 2026 season. Don Mattingly will serve as the interim manager through the end of the season.

"When you're not playing well and you're the manager of a ball club, you're held accountable, and rightly so," Thomson told reporters Tuesday. "I wasn't officially offered anything, but I am open to staying in this organization. I've said throughout my four years as manager here, I don't want to go anywhere else. I love this organization."

He added: "I still think, and I hope, because I love these guys, that this team's going to turn this thing around, and they're going to get hot. I have a bunch of different reasons why, but one is the fact that there's a lot of talent in there."

Matt Gelb of The Athletic first reported Thomson's exit, while Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported Alex Cora was offered the job after his own firing by the Boston Red Sox, but turned down the role to spend time with his family.

Thomson, 62, took over as interim manager in the middle of the 2022 season after Joe Girardi was fired. The Phillies went 65-46 under his watch and won the National League pennant, falling short to the Houston Astros in the World Series.

The Phillies removed the interim tag and signed him to a two-year deal that October, and he's led them to the playoffs in four straight seasons.

But there have been diminishing returns. The Phillies haven't won a playoff series since the 2023 campaign and their bats have gone ice cold in the past two postseasons.

And the 2026 season started off in calamitous fashion, with the team losing 10 straight games in mid-April that brought them to a woeful 8-18 start. The offense has remained inconsistent at best, the starting pitching has been worse than expected and the bullpen has been erratic.

All of the blame can't be blamed on Thomson in that regard—a number of players have underachieved, while the front office failed to make the sort of impactful moves this past winter that fans were desperate to see, fearing that the current core was past its contention window.

Those concerns proved to be valid, and Thomson hasn't been able to meaningfully steer the ship away from the encroaching rocks. With the season teetering on the brink, the Phillies opted for a significant change in leadership.