Washington (United States) (AFP) – Rob Thomson was fired as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday with the club off to a 9-19 start to the Major League Baseball season. The 62-year-old Canadian went 355-270 over parts of five seasons with the Phillies, who reached the playoffs four years in a row under Thomson. The Phillies share MLB’s worst record with the New York Mets.
Don Mattingly, who played for the New York Yankees from 1982 to 1995, was promoted from bench coach to interim manager of the Phillies for the remainder of the 2026 campaign by Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. Mattingly’s son, Preston Mattingly, is general manager of the Phillies under Dombrowski, making them MLB’s first father-son manager and general manager duo.
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Thomson replaced Joe Girardi as manager of the Phillies in June of 2022 after a 22-29 start. Under Thomson’s direction, the Phillies went 65-46 with him as interim manager, then ousted St. Louis, Atlanta, and San Diego to reach the World Series, where they lost to the Houston Astros. Philadelphia lost to Arizona in the 2023 National League Championship Series then exited in the first round of the playoffs in 2024 and 2025.
The Phillies snapped a 10-game losing skid on Saturday, the team’s longest win drought since dropping 11 games in a row in September 1999. Thomson became the second MLB manager fired in the opening weeks of the season after Alex Cora was dumped on Saturday by the Boston Red Sox.
© 2024 AFP
