Rob Thomson, the dependable manager who helped the Phillies turn everything around, was with them for two years.

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 a new 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 residence. He walked downstairs to give Thomson the all-clear to enter.

The following day, Dombrowski planned to remove manager Joe Girardi. However, he remained unsure if Thomson would succeed him. The two men discussed the club. Thomson, Girardi’s faithful subordinate, found it awkward. Dombrowski made the job offer to him. Thomson said to Dombrowski, “I’d be stupid to turn it down.”

Two years have passed since the big shift. This past weekend, Dombrowski acknowledged that it was one of his more important choices throughout his illustrious career. Since June 3, 2022, Thomson’s first day on the job, the Phillies have won the fourth-most games in Major League Baseball, and it isn’t the manager’s fault. However, since Thomson took over the manager’s office, there has been a significant cultural shift, according to people in the company. It is based on the 60-year-old Canadian baseball lifer’s modest and enduring creation of trust.

Everybody works. Thomson thinks they’ll succeed. He doesn’t meddle or freak out, and in a franchise not recognized for its stability, that attitude has evolved into the norm. With Thomson in place for those two years, the Phillies have become a formidable force in the National League. Regarding the team’s journey to the World Series, current Phillies bench coach Mike Calitri remarked, “How 2022 unfolded was magical and historic.” Looking back over the last 700+ days, though, it all makes more sense. Great things were usually available here. All he had to do was piece the puzzle together.

Thomson left Dombrowski’s building two years prior. He felt lightheaded. Only the two men knew it was done at that precise moment. The next manager would be Thomson. He made the decision to walk The Franklin Residences’ seven blocks to his flat. Thomson remarked, “Hundreds of people walking by me.” “I feel like my life is about to change. Hugely. One day, I won’t be able to accomplish this. He was clueless. He gave his wife a call. He dialed his children. Nobody else could be aware of this.

Minor League career of Riley Wilson concluded on September 17, 2021. In rookie level, he was a 25-year-old left-handed reliever. He hit the final batter he faced after striking out two. That December, the Phillies let him go, but they made him an offer. In 2022, he started working as an advance scouting intern for the Phillies. It was a laborious job that involved long hours to find trends about forthcoming opponents that might or might not be important to winning a baseball game. Thomson found his work ethic admirable. They required someone to man the video replay room during games when Thomson was promoted to bench coach and manager.

Thomson’s replay challenges were taken over by the intern. Wilson claimed that during the initial hard patch, “he never turned his back on me.” It could have been simple for him to grow impatient with me quickly. He never did, though. He stayed with me forever. There was a close play at second base during the St. Louis Cardinals game on Sunday night. To call Wilson, Calitri took up the dugout phone. Time was running out for them. Wilson said, “Go for it.” In the end, the challenge proved successful and produced two runs for the Phillies. It was the 13th successful challenge for the Phillies in 2024. In the majors, that is tied for most.

Wilson is no longer an intern. Third-base coach Dusty Wathan of the Phillies stated, “Thomas has really good people around him.” Many managers surround themselves with good individuals, but they don’t trust them. Additionally, it is reciprocal. Correct? Because he has faith in everyone, you also begin to trust him. “He allows you to work through things, even if you’re a novice player. He might allow pitchers to face one or two more batters. And it will eventually pay off handsomely. The element of trust is very important.

It’s something Zack Wheeler has found meaningful. Wheeler remarked, “I like that he respects me and how I feel.” He asks me questions all the time. He doesn’t usually let me know when I’m leaving the game. I appreciate that, then. He trusts me back, therefore I make an effort to be as honest as I can with him. That does have some validity. Indeed, Wheeler replied. “I haven’t experienced that before.”

Only three teams—the Orioles, Braves, and Dodgers—have won more games during the regular season than the Phillies in Thomson’s two years in charge. With 196 victories out of 333 games, Thomson is the eighth manager to have achieved that feat since MLB’s 1961 expansion. According to STATS Perform, it’s the most by a manager who took over a team in the middle of the season. Since 1890, his winning percentage of.589 is the highest of any Phillies manager. Over the past 731 days, everything has changed.

Four months later, in October 2022, Thomson, who had been appointed as an interim manager, commented, “It feels like yesterday.” Actually. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with the group, the team, and the front office that we have. There has to be no place that could be greater than this one. I’m not really able to. Thomson leaned forward at his desk. Thomson inked a 2025 contract with the Phillies in 2018. And for that reason, he declared, “I will never work again.” “I’m done with this whenever it ends. Because I don’t think somewhere could replicate what we have happening here.

Calitri declared, “He’s the right person for this time with this group.” Dombrowski questioned how Thomson would be any different in his role as boss two years ago. Being the right-hand man is one thing. Remain in your own lane. However, nothing changed. Dombrowski responded, “No.” He simply feels lot more at ease having candid conversations and debating issues. I had to inform him that I had been doing this for a very long time. You must still express your feelings to me, though. It’s crucial. I’m not on that level. I might be biased in some way. It does not imply that I am infallible.