Less than a week after being eliminated by the NL East rival New York Mets in the NLDS, the Philadelphia Phillies have extended manager Rob Thomson's contract through the 2026 season, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski announced Tuesday. Dombrowski also confirmed the entire coaching staff will return in 2025.
"I think we have a good coaching staff, primarily. They do a very efficient job. They did lead us to 95 wins," Dombrowski said when asked why no changes will be made to the coaching staff. "Anytime you have a disappointing finish, which we did, (we consider making changes). It's also hard to put that on their backs."
Thomson, 61, took over as Phillies manager in June 2022 after the club fired Joe Girardi. He led the team to the NL pennant that year and the NLCS in 2023, but this year they lost in the NLDS. Overall, the Phillies are 250-185 (.575) under Thomson, which is a 93-win pace. Philadelphia had baseball's second-best record in 2024.
Managers and coaches get blamed whenever a team loses in the postseason, that is true in every sport, but for the Phillies, their bullpen simply did not give them a chance in the NLDS. The bullpen allowed 17 runs in 12 2/3 innings in the four games and every reliever who appeared in the series allowed a least one run.
Additionally, Nick Castellanos and Bryce Harper went a combined 11 for 29 (.379) with three doubles and two homers in the four games. The rest of the Phillies went 13 for 100 with one double and one homer. The bullpen didn't do its job and neither did the majority of the lineup.
Changes are coming to the Phillies' roster this offseason, but the magnitude of those changes is unknown. Thomson and his coaching staff will remain, however. The Phillies have handled their first piece of offseason business.
