Manager Girardi fired by Phillies, replaced by Canadian Thomson
Canadian bench coach Rob Thomson will serve as interim manager of the Philadelphia Phillies for the remainder of the season after the struggling team fired Joe Girardi on Friday.
Girardi is the first manager to lose his job this Major League Baseball season, paying the price for his team’s terrible start.
Expected to contend for a National League East title, the Phillies are 22-29 and 12 games behind the first-place New York Mets.
“It has been a frustrating season for us up until this point, as we feel that our club has not played up to its capabilities,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in a statement. “While all of us share the responsibility for the shortcomings, I felt that a change was needed and that a new voice in the clubhouse would give us the best chance to turn things around. I believe we have a talented group that can get back on track, and I am confident that Rob, with his experience and familiarity with our club, is the right man to lead us going forward.”
Thomson, born in Sarnia, Ont., and raised in nearby Corunna, Ont., was Philadelphia’s bench coach and co-ordinated spring training for the past five seasons. He was hired before the 2018 season.
“I am ready to lead this team and look forward to getting to work and turning this around,” he said.
His first game is against a Los Angeles Angels team that has lost eight straight games overall and six straight on the road.
Thomson is the first Canadian full-time manager since George Gibson of London, Ont., managed the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1934. Toronto’s Arthur Irwin, who managed five teams between 1889 and 1899, is the only other Canadian to serve as a full-time manager.
“It’s great. Rob’s in our Hall of Fame, back in 2019, and he has always wanted to manage in the big leagues and now he is getting a great opportunity with a talented team,” said Scott Crawford, director of operations for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Thomson has managed in the past, when Joe Girardi was away or got kicked out out of a game. Of course, (former Toronto catcher) Russell Martin managed the last game of the season in 2018 for the Blue Jays but that was just a one-off special game.
“But Thomson is the first fulltime Canadian manager since 1934 when Gibson finished with the Pirates.”
The Phillies had lost 12 of 17 games heading into the opener of Friday’s three-game series against the Angels.
“We underperformed and that falls on me. This is what happens,” Girardi told SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio. “I think there’s more talent in that room than the way we have played.”
The Phillies have a $224- million (U.S.) payroll and boast 2021 NL MVP Bryce Harper and NL Cy Young Award runner-up Zack Wheeler, fellow pitcher Aaron Nola, all-star catcher J.T. Realmuto and free-agent sluggers Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber. Yet Philadelphia hasn’t made the playoffs since 2011, hasn’t won the World Series since 2008 and has watched fan interest plummet through a decade-plus of mediocre baseball.
Harper has been plagued most of the season with right forearm soreness and was forced to give up right field and play designated hitter. Second baseman Jean Segura is out for up to three months with a fractured right index finger. The Phillies are 12-15 at home and are 4-10 in one-run games. They are 3-7 over their last 10 games.
“I think realistically we should have been 7-3. Well, that’s going to fall on me because we weren’t,” Girardi said. “I just pray that they get better and that they get to the playoffs.”
The Phillies were hurt by a sagging bullpen, defensive deficiencies and slow starts from some of their highpriced veterans (Schwarber is batting .192). The lowlight was a May 5 loss at home to the Mets when they blew a six-run deficit in the ninth inning and lost 8-7.