PHILADELPHIA — Rob Thomson was still the Phillies manager last Saturday evening when Alex Cora called Dave Dombrowski. It was a little before 6 p.m. ET; news of the Boston Red Sox cleaning house would not become public for another hour. A dozen Phillies pitchers were playing catch in left field at Truist Park as Dombrowski took the call in foul territory. Dombrowski and Cora, league sources said, spoke multiple times that night and for extended lengths.
“He just called me as a friend,” Dombrowski said.
Thomson, one of the more successful managers in Phillies history, had 67 hours left on the job.
He went to work Monday morning and spent part of the day in his office, finishing some scouting work on the San Francisco Giants. He walked on the treadmill. He did not hear a word all day from Dombrowski, who was two floors above, plotting a significant change.
Then, on Tuesday morning, Dombrowski asked Thomson to stop by his office, and Thomson knew he would be fired. The silence during the previous day was loud enough. Thomson met at 8:30 a.m. with Dombrowski, who said it was his decision. Principal owner John Middleton, with tears in his eyes, joined for a few minutes.
And that was that.
Dombrowski could not land Cora, his preferred next manager, right now. That did not matter. Dombrowski, the club’s president of baseball operations, was intent on making a change because he had determined that Thomson’s steady style no longer fit a $320 million team that has dug an enormous hole. Thomson might not have been direct and forceful in public. Players said he was behind the scenes. Still, Thomson was insistent on not being overbearing.
Cora might have been that. Whether Don Mattingly, the interim manager, is that remains to be seen. Mattingly said months ago he did not have the energy to manage again.
The Phillies have 134 games to salvage this thing; they will do it without Thomson, who guided the club to four consecutive postseason berths and departed with the best winning percentage (.568) for a Phillies manager since the 19th century.
“We needed a different voice in there,” Dombrowski said. “And four years ago, he was the right voice for us with the club that we had. There was no question about it. And he’s done it very well. I think we needed a different voice with this group where we are right now.”
Dave Dombrowski tried to hire Alex Cora as Phillies manager before firing Rob Thomson. Cora turned down the offer. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
There was no disconnect in the clubhouse, Dombrowski said. Several players and coaches agreed; Thomson had not lost the clubhouse. Some players took it especially hard, knowing they had cost Thomson his job with weeks of poor baseball. They had shared so many champagne celebrations since he took over four years ago. Thomson was an accidental manager, installed in June 2022, and somehow it became so difficult to imagine this place without him.
“It’s tough,” Bryce Harper said. “We love Topper in here. He was a great manager for us over the years. I’ve played for a lot of guys over my 15-year career and Topper was definitely one of the guys at the top. … When we don’t play well or we don’t make things happen, somebody takes the fall. And he took the fall today.”
There were quibbles among players about some of Thomson’s platoons and bullpen choices. He was not perfect; far from it. Someone had to be held accountable for a nightmare 28-game stretch.
Thomson held no grudges, at least publicly, despite Dombrowski actively seeking his replacement before terminating him.
“I don’t really think too much of it,” Thomson said. “I think Dave’s just doing his due diligence. He had made up his mind and he was going to move forward. This guy’s a Hall of Fame executive. So I think people need to trust him. He is going to do the right thing for the organization. Dave and I have a close relationship, but that doesn’t stand in the way of him doing the right thing for the organization. I respect that.”
Sunday morning, after the Phillies snapped a 10-game losing streak, Dombrowski and Cora spoke again about the job. The Phillies were aggressive in their pursuit of a hiring that would have been almost unprecedented. There have been men who managed two big-league teams in one season, but perhaps none had ever done it in less than a week.
As Dombrowski negotiated with Cora, he accompanied three of his scouts (David Chadd, Charley Kerfeld and Brad Sloan) to a meeting Sunday morning in the visiting manager’s office at Truist Park. Dombrowski had summoned the scouts to Atlanta — before Cora’s ouster — to evaluate all aspects of the operation. It was the clearest sign that Dombrowski was about to act.
The veteran executive had few other levers to pull. He’s removed two players from the Opening Day roster for performance reasons. Otto Kemp, intended to be a platoon outfielder, was demoted to Triple A earlier this month. And Taijuan Walker was released last week. Those were the only roster modifications Dombrowski made before he shifted his attention toward the manager.
Don Mattingly was promoted from bench coach to interim manager. He has managed more than 1,800 games in the majors. (Dale Zanine / Imagn Images)
Mattingly, on Tuesday, promised some changes; he did not reveal specifics. The Phillies have taken a deeper look into how they prepare for games — and that includes the input from analysts in the club’s research and development department. Mattingly could take a more hands-on approach. He will manage only for the remainder of the 2026 season. The Phillies will make another push for Cora in the winter.
Why did Mattingly say yes?
“Because Dave asked,” Mattingly said.
Dombrowski offered the job to Mattingly, whose son Preston is the team’s general manager, sometime on Monday afternoon. Dombrowski oversees all aspects of the big-league club. He said the decision to fire Thomson was his and made without pressure from ownership.
Mattingly did not make sweeping changes to the coaching staff. He requested that Dusty Wathan, who has been in the Phillies organization for almost two decades, be elevated to bench coach.
Wathan spent Monday’s off day at home in North Carolina. He was on an American Airlines flight Tuesday morning, ready to leave the gate, when the jet was struck by lightning. The plane went dark. The pilot had everyone leave the plane, and Wathan was inside the terminal when Dombrowski called.
Wathan accepted. It was bittersweet.
Throughout the entire organization, there was a certain heartbreak on Tuesday, akin to the day the Phillies fired Charlie Manuel in August 2013. Thomson was not as successful as Manuel, who captured a World Series and is the winningest manager in the franchise’s history. But the level of respect for Thomson was immense.
“I’ve loved every minute here in Philadelphia,” Thomson said. “I feel like a citizen here. I really do. It’s been the best.”
Rob Thomson finished with a .568 winning percentage for the Phillies and led the club to four straight postseasons. (Bob Levey / Getty Images)
He took the unusual step, for a departing manager, of fielding reporters’ questions from his Packer Park condo, less than a mile from Citizens Bank Park. Thomson, who has not yet been offered an advisor job to remain in the organization, used the words “we” and “ours” in his answers about the Phillies.
He said he might watch some playoff hockey on Tuesday night. Scratch that.
“Actually, I’m going to watch our game,” he said. “I really am.”
Mattingly had Anthony Contreras, who was promoted from Triple-A manager to third-base coach, take the lineup card to home plate before Tuesday night’s game. And after the national anthem, there was total silence for almost five minutes. No music. No announcements. Dan Baker, the venerable public address announcer, never read the lineups or introduced Mattingly because his microphone malfunctioned. It was dreary. The ballpark was half empty. It later filled in as the Phillies scored some runs.
This season, only a month old, has unfolded in unimaginable ways. The magic was gone.
“Just look at life four years ago, where anybody was in life,” Dombrowski said. “Are you exactly the same? Are the structures exactly the same? Are the dynamics exactly the same? Things change. And sometimes clubs change, personnel changes. Not only that, but how they react to certain things. Sometimes they can get, ‘Everything’s going to be fine. Everything’s going to be OK.’ And sometimes it’s not.”
