Phillies fire Thomson

The Philadelphia Phillies have fired manager Rob Thomson (Corunna, Ont.)

April 28, 2026

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

The Philadelphia Phillies have fired manager Rob Thomson (Corunna, Ont.).

Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies president of baseball operations, made the announcement on Tuesday morning after the team has gotten off to a 9-19 start.

Bench coach Don Mattingly will take over as Phillies manager for the remainder of the 2026 campaign.

The Phillies issued the following statement:

The 62-year-old Thomson was in his fifth season with the Phillies. He finishes with a 355-270 regular season record with the club.

Thomson guided the Phillies to a 96-66 record and a National League East division title in 2025 before they were ousted in four games by the eventual World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series.

When Thomson took over as manager of the Phillies on June 4, 2022, he became the first full-time Canadian big league manager since George Gibson (London, Ont.) with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1934.

After becoming the Phillies’ skipper, Thomson led the team to four straight postseason appearances.

He piloted the Phillies to a National League pennant in 2022 and a National League Championship Series berth in 2023. He then guided the Phillies to back-to-back division titles in 2024 and 2025.

Prior to joining the Phillies, Thomson, a catcher on the 1984 Canadian Olympic team, spent close to three decades as a coach in the Yankees’ organization and earned five World Series rings. He was the Bombers’ third base coach on their most recent World Series-winning squad in 2009. He was also a bench coach on multiple Yankees squads that advanced to the postseason.

Thomson was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.