Phillies extend Rob Thomson’s contract through 2026: ‘This will be my last stop’

Two years ago, Rob Thomson was getting ready to retire from baseball.

That decision was put on pause when he was promoted to Phillies manager in June 2022, replacing Joe Girardi, and took the club all the way to the World Series. It was postponed again when he signed a contract extension in 2023.

And now the idea of retirement is fading further in the rearview mirror. The Phillies announced Tuesday that they have extended Thomson’s contract for an additional year, taking him through the 2026 season.

“I’ve mentioned it many times. This is the only place I want to be, and this will be my last stop,” said Thomson, 61.

Phillies president Dave Dombrowski said he wanted to provide the club with stability from a management standpoint, despite the disappointing end to this season with a loss to the Mets in the National League Division Series. The extension prevents Thomson from being a lame-duck manager in 2025, and the manager plans to take things year-by-year after that.

“There’s very few clubs in baseball that have made the postseason three years in a row. He has done that,” Dombrowski said. “We’ve been a very good club under his guidance. ... I’ve been in the position, sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly, where your manager goes into the last year of his contract, then right off the bat, you lose three games in row, and there’s speculation on his job status.”

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Thomson’s entire coaching staff also is set to return next season. The Phillies offense went cold for the second consecutive postseason, with a combined .186 batting average in four games against the Mets in the NLDS. But Thomson and Dombrowski remain confident that hitting coach Kevin Long will unlock the offense.

“Many managers will say it, but I truly believe that we have the best coaching staff,” Thomson said. “I think if you go around baseball, and you talk to every baseball person and say, ‘OK, give me your top five hitting coaches in baseball,’ [Long is] going to be on almost every list, and he’s going to be No. 1 on a lot of lists.”

Added Dombrowski: “To me, it was pretty simple in that regard. Any time you do have a disappointing finish, which we did, it’s also hard to put that on their backs in that case. So I think we all share collectively in what happened, but it’s one of those things where putting it on any of their individual backs, I don’t think was the right thing to do.”

Although the personnel will remain the same, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be changes to how the Phillies operate. Thomson said the coaching staff will discuss tweaking the lineup to generate a more consistent offense. He also pointed toward fatigue after the Phillies’ torrid start to the season possibly playing a role in the NLDS collapse.

“At the start of the season, we give more guys more days off,” he said. “And I’m not just talking J.T. [Realmuto] or one or two [players]. I’m talking about everybody. Was it fatigue that set in in July? Maybe by giving guys an extra day off here and there early, we can extend that run a little bit longer and right into October.”

For certain players whose future with the Phillies remains up in the air, the offseason won’t be a time to take their foot off the gas.

Johan Rojas did not take a step forward with his batting this season like the Phillies hoped. He will live in Clearwater, Fla., this winter, where the Phillies have a plan for his offensive development.

“He reduced his chase rate. He’s still an outstanding defensive center fielder,” Dombrowski said. “He can run, but I can’t say he’s for sure going to be our center fielder. ... I’m not sure who it will be, but I would think that a couple of guys for sure that are part of that equation are [Brandon] Marsh and [Nick] Castellanos, and then we take it from there.”

The Phillies also gave right-hander Taijuan Walker a detailed throwing and conditioning program for the offseason as he looks to turn the page from the worst season in his career.

“He is in a position where I’m convinced he will work hard on that to get it done,” Dombrowski said. “I would think he’ll come in spring training with us next year, but he’s not guaranteed a starting spot.”