Why Phillies fired Rob Thomson after a 9-19 start to 2026 season

Why Phillies fired Rob Thomson after a 9-19 start to 2026 season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

>The Philadelphia Phillies began the 2026 season with a very poor 9-19 record through 28 games. It was a start; this older team in a World Series-contending season could not afford.

>Amid such a poor start, there were plenty of rumblings about Rob Thomson being fired. And after such smoke, the Phillies have made their decision.

>According to Matt Gelb of The Athletic, the Phillies have fired Thomson, while Don Mattingly will be the interim manager. But why did the Phillies fire Thomson? The reason is quite simple: he couldn't help the Phillies get over the hump.

Why the Phillies fired Rob Thomson"The Phillies have fired manager Rob Thomson, sources told The Athletic. Don Mattingly will be interim manager," Gelb reports.

>This decision from the Phillies is not an unexpected one at all. With a 9-19 record, the worst in Major League Baseball (tied with the New York Mets), this decision was not unexpected whatsoever.

>Looking back into the past a bit, the Phillies, since their miraculous run to the World Series in 2022 after Thomson took over, made it to the doorstep in 2023, but collapsed against the Arizona Diamondbacks. That was a brutal NLCS loss.

>The next two seasons, Thomson's Phillies made it to the NLDS, but lost in heartbreaking fashion to the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers.

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>Despite having a team that should contend for a World Series, the Phillies couldn't get over the hump. That was one of the main reasons why Thomson was on the hot seat after last year and coming into the 2026 season.

>Being on the hot seat before the season even began, followed by this atrocious start to the season, made this decision all the easier to make for the Phillies. The team is stagnating, and something needs to change.

>With very winnable series coming up against the San Francisco Giants, Miami Marlins, Athletics, and Colorado Rockies, the new manager, Don Mattingly, should have an easy path to a few wins, taking over.

>Between the crushing losses of the last two years in the postseason, the brutal start to the season in 2026, and the softer schedule coming up, now was the time to fire Thomson and hand the keys over to Mattingly.

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