Rob Thomson's Top MLB Landing Spots After Being Fired by Phillies
Rob Thomson has become the second manager to be fired this MLB season.
The Philadelphia Phillies dismissed Thomson on Tuesday amid a 9-19 start. Don Mattingly will serve as interim manager.
The move has been expected, with the Phillies having lost 11 of their last 12 games and currently tied with their NL East rival New York Mets for the worst record in MLB.
Thomson's future in MLB will be interesting because he has been in Philadelphia since 2018 when he joined Gabe Kapler's staff as a bench coach and remained in the role when Joe Girardi replaced Kapler in 2020.
He planned to retire after the 2022 season before being named interim manager midway through the year after Joe Girardi was fired.
Given that retirement was on the table for Thomson before becoming a manager, perhaps that comes back into play for the 62-year-old. He previously worked for the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees, so they might appeal to him as a coach if an offer comes along.
Here are the potential landing spots for Thomson if he wants to continue working in MLB with his Phillies tenure over.
New York Yankees
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The overwhelming majority of Thomson's MLB career was spent with the Yankees. He coached in the organization for 28 seasons from 1990 to 2017, including the last 14 at the big-league level.
When Girardi was hired as Yankees manager prior to the 2008 season, Thomson joined his staff as bench coach. He was their third-base coach in 2009, which is the most recent year they won a World Series title.
One reason the Yankees might not have as much allure for Thomson as that past resume suggests is he was bypassed for their managerial job after the 2017 season in favor of Aaron Boone, though there didn't appear to be any hard feelings on his end.
"Brian [Cashman] and his staff are very sharp people and they had an idea of what that manager would look like and Booney was a better fit than I was," Thomson said in February 2018. "That is fair."
Thomson held a myriad of roles with New York during his time with the organization. He started as a base coach in the minor leagues, then moved into the front office as director of player development (2000 to '02) and vice president of minor league development (2003).
Detroit Tigers
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The Tigers hold the distinction of being Thomson's first exposure to MLB because they drafted him out of college in 1985 in the 32nd round.
His professional career was spent entirely in the minors, playing 216 games over four seasons before retiring early in the 1988 campaign to move into coaching.
Thomson coached in the minors with Tigers affiliates for two seasons before moving to the Yankees.
A.J. Hinch is firmly entrenched as the manager in Detroit, having overseen the franchise's turnaround to becoming competitive in the AL and making the playoffs in each of the past two seasons.
The Tigers already have one former player on their current staff. George Lombard played for them in 2002 and has been their bench coach since 2021.
Thomson could fill a similar role if Hinch and/or the front office want to add more brainpower to their staff either for the rest of this season or as they fill out their 2027 group.
Retirement
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Given how close Thomson was to retiring before the Phillies fired Girardi in June 2022 and gave him the top job, it wouldn't be a surprise if he decides to call it a career now.
Thomson, who will turn 63 on Aug. 16, entered this season as the third-oldest active manager in MLB, behind Pat Murphy of the Milwaukee Brewers and Terry Francona of the Cincinnati Reds.
Even though this isn't the way Thomson would have drawn up to end his career, there were plenty of highlights throughout his five-year tenure managing in Philadelphia.
The Phillies went 355-270 and made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, including a World Series appearance in 2022, under Thomson. He ranks 10th in franchise history in managerial wins.
Thomson has already been immortalized in his native Canada for his baseball accomplishments. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.
When you go back to the start of his playing career in 1985, Thomson has spent 41 consecutive years in professional baseball prior to Tuesday's move. That's an incredible run for anyone in the history of the sport if it does mark the end of his career.
