The Philadelphia Phillies have done nothing to reassure a scar-covered fanbase, as the same issues that have sunk the team time and again rear their ugly heads once more in 2026. “Wake me up in October” has become a familiar refrain for fans tired of the same sloppy, disinterested product that the team has displayed over the past five seasons. Clearly something has to change, and manager Rob Thomson should be at the top of a very long list of moves that need to be made.
Rob Thomson came to the Phillies at a desperate time in the club’s history, as his predecessor Joe Girardi’s ineptitude threatened to sink the first competitive squad the franchise had fielded in a decade. After a brutal 22-29 start, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski finally pulled the plug on Girardi and handed the reins to first-time skipper Thomson. The mild-mannered Canadian proved to be just what the doctor ordered, immediately righting the ship and piloting the Phillies all the way to a Cinderella story National League pennant.
Unfortunately, it’s only gone downhill from there, as the club completely imploded on the doorstep of the 2023 World Series and produced predictable one-and-done playoff faceplants in 2024 and 2025. It’s been the same old song for the Phillies for a half decade at this point, and fans are desperate for some accountability. Unfortunately, that has yet to happen.
Someone has to take the fall for the Phillies’ continued struggles
The Phillies have a multitude of problems at this point, ranging from the front office to the coaching staff, on down to the players on the field. First and foremost, management is not putting the team in a position to succeed. Future Hall of Fame executive Dave Dombrowski has made his name by going all in to capture championships with experienced cores. It worked for him with the Florida Marlins and Boston Red Sox, and not so much with the Detroit Tigers and now the Phillies.
Dombrowski has shelled out big bucks to aging veterans Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Aaron Nola, Taijuan Walker, Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto and others in an effort to put together a winning squad. Some of those contracts have aged well, while others have been complete trainwrecks.
Ultimately, Dombrowski’s vision of a stars-and-scrubs World Series winner has failed to come to fruition as the ancillary pieces have simply not been good enough. Continued attempts to wallpaper over glaring holes in the outfield have led to Whit Merrifield, Max Kepler and now Adolís García failing to hit, while the bullpen had been an abject disaster until the acquisition of Jhoan Duran last summer.
Second and third base have been black holes for a while now, as former first-round picks Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm have never lived up to the hype. Add in a centerfield mix of Matt Vierling, Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh for four straight seasons, and you have the makings of a woefully undercooked roster.
Fans have been crying out for reinforcements as an unchanging core has continued to decline in their old age, but those pleas have fallen on deaf ears while the front office continues to pretend the current state of affairs is enough to win a championship. This year has been more of the same, as underdog utilityman Otto Kemp has been miscast as an outfielder, while Bohm and Stott continue to be unplayable, and the offense that has needed a jolt for years continues to look lifeless.
Dave Dombrowski may be an all-time great baseball man, but his time has clearly passed in the City of Brotherly Love and a new approach is desperately needed to fix an inadequate roster. And yet, he can’t shoulder all of the blame for the Phillies’ abysmal start to the season.
Roster construction is just one of many problems facing the Phillies
Rob Thomson has gained a reputation as the consummate players’ manager. An even-keeled decision-maker who never takes a loss too hard, and never gets drunk on too much success. Topper has made a habit of sticking by his guys even in the face of withering criticism, and that has earned him a great deal of clout in a locker room full of veterans. However, the line between standing up for your players and defending the indefensible has clearly been crossed, and Thomson’s once-commendable player-driven approach has metastasized into the inmates running the asylum.
The Phillies have gotten lazy. There’s no getting around it. Routine plays are too often botched, bad attitudes linger and infect the clubhouse ecosystem, and discipline is hardly ever meted out even when it’s far past due.
We’ve all seen how the Phillies rest on their laurels when things are going poorly, and we’ve all heard the same worn out refrains from Thomson and his players in times of strife. “We’re trying to do too much,” or “we know we have to play better,” or “these guys will play to the backs of their baseball cards.” That may be a standard PR answer to calm down a seething fanbase, but it just isn’t good enough anymore.
The Phillies have gotten too comfortable failing over the past few seasons. They held a two games to one lead in the 2022 World Series and fell asleep at the wheel. They went up 2-0 and then 3-2 in the 2023 NLCS before stepping on a rake against a Diamondbacks team that had won a measly 84 games that year. The past two playoff exits have been abject disasters due to the team completely forgetting how to hit the baseball. Fans are tired of excuses. They want results.
And yet, Rob Thomson has no answers to offer. Any criticism levied towards his players by fans or reporters is quickly countered with a generic platitude focusing on how much talent they secretly possess. Errors on routine plays are dismissed as one-off occurrences. Terrible approaches at the plate are just guys “trying to do too much.”
Fans never see public displays of accountability. Underperforming or checked out players are never made to suffer the consequences of their poor performances. Case in point, third baseman Alec Bohm has posted an atrocious .427 OPS to start the season, and has made multiple boneheaded plays in the field. He was never pulled from a contest or forced to ride the bench for multiple games as a result. In fact, Thomson turned to him with the game on the line on Tuesday and he predictably struck out in a feeble at bat.
Phillies fans have very little insight into just how hard players work, but the kernels of truth they do receive usually aren’t inspiring. Last October after Orion Kerkering literally and figuratively threw away another chance at a World Series, All-Star reliever Matt Strahm put management on blast by disclosing that the team placed little to no emphasis on pitchers practicing fielding.
Considering the fact that an inexcusable error literally cost the team their entire season, it should have been considered constructive criticism. However, Thomson and Dombrowski don’t live in the land of reality like the rest of us, but instead dwell in fantasyland where no one could ever have predicted a pitcher needing to field a baseball, let alone throw one to first base.
Thomson indignantly told the media, “Me, or nobody else can simulate that situation… We could hit them that ball 1,000 times and they’ll make the play, but I can’t simulate all the other things.” In other words: what’s the point in practicing if you can’t predict every single thing that could ever happen? Nothing is to be gained by honing one’s craft, so why even bother?
It’s this lackadaisical, malignant attitude that has spread throughout the Phillies’ clubhouse on Rob Thomson’s watch. Phillies fans received a disturbing insight into the team’s inner workings this past winter when the untenable Nick Castellanos situation finally came to a head.
It was revealed that the erstwhile right fielder felt disrespected after being subbed out for defensive purposes in a June contest against the Marlins. In response, Castellanos brought alcohol into the dugout and mouthed off to his boss, Thomson, about his displeasure.
This sort of behavior may get a normal person fired from their job, or at the very least put them on very thin ice, but not a Philadelphia Phillie. Castellanos’ punishment was a one-game benching and a very blasé explanation from Thomson about an “inappropriate comment.” Wow, that’ll show him.
It should come as no surprise that Castellanos’ behavior did not improve as a result of Thomson’s pathetic brand of discipline. It came out that during the Phillies’ disastrous playoff matchup against the Dodgers, catcher J.T. Realmuto was made to wait to warm up for a game because Castellanos’ son Liam was taking batting practice on the field. By all accounts, not a single player or coach stepped in to ensure the preparation of professional athletes participating in Major League Baseball games took precedence over a pre-teen living out a fantasy.
This is the world that the Philadelphia Phillies inhabit. Wrongs are not righted, mistakes are not corrected and no one is ever taken to task. Everyone just seems to float along, hoping to play well, but if not, who cares?
There’s an old saying in the Army: “We can't make you do anything, but we can make you wish you had.” That philosophy seems to be lost on Rob Thomson and the Phillies. Ineptitude and indifference is rarely met with discipline, but instead apathy, allowing the virus to linger and grow larger.
Professional baseball is a difficult way to make a living, and fans are sympathetic to the constant ebb and flow that comes with a career in professional sports. Slumps are to be expected over a 162-game season, and fans realize how hard it is to hit a round ball with a round bat squarely.
What fans cannot abide is failing to control the controllables. Most fans can’t hit a 100 mile per hour fastball. Most fans can’t throw a curveball that buckles a batters’ knees. What most fans can do is practice the fundamentals of baseball and know what to do with the ball when it’s hit to them. Most fans can be respectful to their coworkers and show that they’re invested in the success of the collective body. That’s why it drives them crazy when the Phillies fail to accomplish these routine tasks.
Firing Rob Thomson, Dave Dombrowski, Kevin Long, or any other figurehead of a Phillies culture that is rotten to the core probably won’t result in an immediate World Series-winning trajectory. What it will do is send a long overdue message that the current state of affairs is unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated.
Players can’t guarantee their fans that they’ll always succeed, but they can guarantee that they’ll always be invested and try their hardest. Phillies fans will need to see a pretty dramatic shakeup if they’re going to start believing that.
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