PHILADELPHIA — With 111 games remaining in the 2022 MLB regular season going into Friday, the Phillies have time to salvage the season and make the playoffs for the first time in 11 years.
But interim manager Rob Thomson, who succeeds the fired Joe Girardi, and his staff are going to have to get more out of this flawed roster than Girardi did.
While the 58-year-old Thomson worked for Girardi with the Yankees as New York’s third-base coach from 2009-14 and bench coach from 2015-17, he said he plans to get more feedback from the players to understand what they’re thinking.
“I’m a little bit different than Joe,” said Thomson during Friday afternoon’s news conference at Citizens Bank Park. “I’m not going to get into the differences, but I like to think I’m prepared and a good communicator with these guys.”
The Phillies’ difficulties on defense and poor fundamentals were recurring issues under Girardi and one of the reasons they sported a disappointing 22-29 record and were 5½ games out of the final wild-card spot going into Friday night’s game against the Angels.
By letting the players know what’s expected of them, Thomson hopes to cut down on instances like two outfielders pulling away from fly balls between them, which happened twice in the last two weeks with disastrous results.
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“The plan is for all these guys to know where they’re supposed to be at any given time, whether it’s the bullpen, our lineup or whatever it is,” Thomson said.
Girardi’s policy was not to use relievers three days in a row, which resulted in limited bullpens on numerous occasions and journeyman Nick Nelson trying to close a May 24 road game against the Braves (it didn’t work out in a 6-5 loss). Thomson said he’ll talk to the pitcher to gauge the guy’s availability for a third consecutive outing.
“I think we needed a different voice in the clubhouse,” said president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who made the decision to fire Girardi while on a run Friday morning. “And I think that Topper (Thomson) provides that. I think he’ll provide a different communication aspect with the players. I think that was really important for us to get it going.”
While Dombrowski said he and the players bear some of the blame for the Phils’ struggles, Girardi took plenty of warranted criticism and lost his job. It’s up to Thomson, who began with the organization as Gabe Kapler’s bench coach in 2018, and the players to get Philadelphia back into the postseason mix.
“With (Thomson), he’s been around the game for a long time,” Bryce Harper said Friday. “He’s been around winning teams and winning mangers as well, like Joe Girardi, right? He’s been in this organization for five years now. He knows the ins and outs. He brings that new voice. Maybe he’s more open now since he is the manager and not the bench coach. I think we’ll see more out of him.”
The Phillies can use all the help they can get. If things go well and they make the playoffs for the first time since 2011 with Thomson, he could make a case to be the permanent manager like Pete Mackanin did after succeeding Ryne Sandberg on an interim basis in 2015.
That seems a long way off, though For now, Thomson needs to establish how he’ll manage this team and go from there.
“I think the biggest message is I’m going to be there for them,” Thomson said. “I have their back and I’m going to support them in every way.”
We’ll see how much of a difference that makes with a team Dombrowski believes underachieved with Girardi and is good enough to reach the playoffs. It was a move worth making.
Tom Moore: tmoore@couriertimes; @TomMoorePhilly
