After two-plus years as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, Joe Girardi has been fired.
The news was delivered earlier this morning from the Phillies’ President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski.
In addition to the news of Girardi’s firing, the organization announced that bench coach Rob Thomson has been promoted as the team’s interim manager for the remainder of the 2022 season.
Thomson has served as the Phillies bench coach for the past five seasons, and the 2022 season marks his 38th season working in Major League Baseball.
Even with 38 years experience in the league, this is Thomson’s first-ever opportunity to be the skipper of a Major League Baseball team. His promotion as interim manager marks him as the 56th manager in Phillies’ franchise history.
In a statement released to the public, Dombrowski stated, “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…”
He continued, “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.”
As for Girardi, his tenure with the Phillies rounds out at an overall record of 132-141.
Having been brought in prior to the 2020 season, Girardi was expected to lead the Phillies’ to the playoffs after consecutive September collapses with former manager Gabe Kapler at the helm.
Gabe Kapler had never managed in the MLB prior to his tenure with the Phillies, and as such, Girardi was perceived as a logical successor to the first-time manager seeing as that he had over a decade of experience as a big-league coach when hired by the Phillies in 2020.
However, Girardi’s experience and veteran presence as the Phillies manager did not provide the expected boost in leadership that the club needed in order to clinch a playoff berth.
Instead, Girardi’s tenure was plagued with an overabundance of disappointment and inconsistency.
Despite the fact that the Phillies have marked within the top seven highest payrolls in baseball over each of Girardi’s years as manager, the club’s talented rosters have repeatedly looked lifeless under his direction.
With Girardi out and Thomson now acting as the team’s interim manager, the pressure has increased even more so for the Phillies underachieving roster to wake up.
If the club continues to fall amid their lifeless style of play, it’ll undoubtedly lead to major personnel shakeups following this season.
The Phillies currently stand twelve games back of first place in the National League East division with an underwhelming record of 22-29.
As the team attempts to dig themselves out of their own hole, they’ll be hoping to snap a nearly eleven-year playoff drought; the second longest current drought in Major League Baseball.
With the revolving door of talented rosters and proven coaches in the Phillies organization consistently failing to meet expectations, it’s hard not to wonder if the Phillies’ losing ways are more a product of the organization rather than individual coaches or players.
After all, the Philadelphia Phillies are the all-time losingest franchise in the history of professional baseball for a reason.
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