One message stood clear above the rest on Tuesday as Phillies’ president Dave Dombrowski met with the media in the wake of the firing of Rob Thomson: the Phillies needed a different voice.
Sitting at 9-19, the Phillies are playing their worst stretch of baseball in over 20 years. The starting pitching staff, once heralded as one of the best in the league, owns the worst ERA in the Majors. The offense has been so cold they have scored the third least runs. The defense has struggled to make simple plays. Everything has been going wrong.
“I don’t think we’re playing up to our capabilities,” Dombrowski said. “I think we’re a much better club than we’ve played.”
Which is why Dombrowski felt it was time to make a change in an attempt to stimulate the team to begin to right the ship. Thomson was relieved of his duties Tuesday morning with bench coach Don Mattingly taking the helm in an interim capacity for the remainder of the season.
Following the wake of the firing of Alex Cora, Dombrowski had a series of conversations with the former Red Sox manager. Cora, who looks to Dombrowski as a mentor, called Dombrowski on a personal note on Saturday to ask for guidance following his firing.
Sunday morning, the pair had a second interaction where they broached the topic of Cora potentially coming to Philadelphia. Dombrowski admitted he may have made the change then and there should Cora have been interested. Cora ultimately declined Dombrowski’s proposal, opting to spend time with his family for the remainder of the season. Dombrowski hinted that being a good father to his four children is a priority to Cora.
At that point, Dombrowski believed a change would still be necessary. During their three-game series in Atlanta, the Phillies’ entire senior staff of scouts, assistant general managers, and front office staff, were present with the intention of giving Dombrowski extra voices into the issue. Many of these staffers spend a good portion of their time watching what other teams are doing, how they go about their business. Dombrowski wanted every perspective on the table before making a final decision.
Monday, the group convened early in the afternoon to deliberate. At the end of that meeting, the room had come to a decision.
When the Phillies hired Don Mattingly on in the offseason as bench coach, speculation flurried that the team was setting up to replace Thomson. At the time, Mattingly vehemently denied this, claiming that he had no interest in becoming manager once again. The manager has 12 years of managerial experience under his belt with a baseball pedigree dating back to his time as a first baseman for the New York Yankees. Even on Tuesday, Mattingly still donned the first base mitt to aid in the Phillies’ typical infield work before the game.
With Mattingly’s promotion, there is a shuffling of roles on his team of coaches. Dusty Wathan will now take over as bench coach after serving as the third base coach since 2018. Anthony Contreras, the former manager of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, will join the staff as the third base coach while his bench coach, Chris Adamson, takes over as manager of Lehigh Valley.
One position that has not changed is that of hitting coach. Kevin Long has been under fire from the fanbase in his role the past several years. Mattingly echoed what has been a common defense from Thomson of Long, that he is considered across the League as one of the best hitting coaches in baseball. Dombrowski admitted on Tuesday there was no mandate from him to make any changes to the coaching staff and that the decision was Mattingly’s alone.
The first lineup of the Mattingly era bears a strong resemblance to the Thomson era. Mattingly believes that there may not be many noticeable changes to the lineup card in the days ahead, but that there would be some small changes that he hopes can aid the team.
Ten games under after 28 games is not a good place for any team to be in. During his time with the Dodgers, Mattingly worked his way out of similar deficits.
“Once or twice I was down by 10.5 games and one of those years I know we won the division by 10.5,” said Mattingly. “That is something that I know comes with good baseball. And with talented teams, you can go out and reel off six out of 10, seven out of 10, and consistently do that.”
With all of his baseball experience, Mattingly’s first meeting with the press was filled with one constantly echoed phrase “play better baseball.”
With a new voice at the helm, it is now up to the 26 players on the roster to prove that they are as talented as Mattingly believes.
Thomson still believes in the team. During his press conference, an uncommon occurrence for a fired manager, Thomson had a message for the fans:
“This team is gonna turn this thing around and they're gonna get hot,” said Thomson. “I have a bunch of different reasons why, but one is the fact that there's a lot of talent in there.”
As Mattingly manages the talented Phillies, Thomson will sit at home tonight. What will he do? He was torn between watching playoff hockey and watching his team. The Phillies are still his team, just not his to manage.
