Two years of Rob Thomson, the trusting manager who helped change everything for the Phillies
PHILADELPHIA: Dave Dombrowski asked the team’s bench coach where he was when he gave him a call the day before everything for the Phillies changed. The game didn’t exist. Rob Thomson needed to analyze some video, which is why he was at Citizens Bank Park. Next up was an unfamiliar opponent in the Los Angeles Angels.
This was not a conversation Dombrowski could have at the ballpark. The seasoned executive said, “Can you meet me at my place?” to Thomson. This was strange because Dombrowski, the club’s president of baseball operations, had not received any guests at his Center City high-rise condo. He went downstairs to give Thomson the all-clear to enter.
Dombrowski knew he’d fire manager Joe Girardi the next day. But he was not certain about Thomson as his replacement. The two men talked about the club. It was awkward for Thomson, who was a loyal subordinate to Girardi. Dombrowski offered him the job.
“I’d be stupid,” Thomson told Dombrowski, “to turn it down.”
It’s been two years since everything changed. It was, Dombrowski admitted this weekend, one of the more consequential decisions he’s made in his decorated career. The Phillies have won the fourth-most games in MLB since June 3, 2022 — Thomson’s first day on the job — and it is not because of the manager. But people across the organization have described a massive culture shift since Thomson inherited the manager’s office. It is built on the 60-year-old unpretentious baseball lifer from Canada creating trust that has not wavered.
