Christiaan DeFranco | On the Phillies
All right, I have to get this off my chest before I can finally move on with my life.
I’ve mentioned it on other platforms, and now I’ll mention it here.
For two years, I was mostly stuck at home or stuck in a hospital, and I’m not talking about COVID. I had a thrown-out back, a blood infection, and double spinal-fusion surgery. Even though I attempted to work from home when I was able, I probably watched 300-plus Phillies games in that span.
Is that sad? Maybe. Maybe very sad. Lol.
However, I wasn’t glued to the TV for every game, and I obviously wasn’t able to cover the Phillies as a journalist, but I always had the game on, no matter what I was doing.
The Phillies gave me a sense of normalcy every day while I was dealing with health issues, while I was gaining ungodly amounts of weight before and after back surgery. (Pass me the Ozempic.) The Phillies were always there.
In other words, I was a fan, and I was extra invested. I know that many people around here were invested too.
The Phillies lost the NLCS when they blew those first two games in Arizona. Thank you very much, Craig Kimbrel — and Rob Thomson.
Thomson blew both of those games by bringing in the rookie Orion Kerkering and 35-year-old Craig Kimbrel, who has looked washed since the All-Star break, when he seemed to hit a wall, in both Game 3 and Game 4.
(And Kimbrel just let baserunners run wild against him. They’d get into scoring position and then score. It was like, “Hello! That’s your responsibility!”)
Also, there was no reason for Thomson not to pinch hit for Johan Rojas in Game 7 with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth, with the Phillies up 2-1 and with runs at a premium.
Rojas finished 4-for-43 this postseason. He flailed with a weak swing for strike three in that pivotal moment, when the Phillies had a chance to break things open. Rojas gave us no chance.
Thomson said he didn’t want to sacrifice his defense in center field (as if Rojas is Willie Mays out there). Christian Pache plays an excellent center field and had some clutch hits for us during the regular season. He would have been a logical choice to pinch hit (or even to start). Or Thomson could have pinch hit with Jake Cave, who ended the game at the plate, put Cave in left and moved Marsh over to center.
And why on earth did Thomson keep choosing to pitch to Corbin Carroll?
With two outs and a man on second base in the fifth, he let Ranger Suárez pitch to Carroll, who was already 2-for-2 with a run scored against Ranger. (Pregame, Thomson had said he’d be looking to remove Suárez in that spot, regardless of what was happening.) But instead of taking him out, when it turned out it actually made sense to do so in that spot, he left him in and Carroll burned us with an RBI single to tie the game, stole second, and then scored on a base hit to put the D’backs ahead 3-2.
What?!
Also, our big bats obviously didn’t come through the last two games at the plate. In Game 7, Schwarber, Turner, Harper and Castellanos were a combined 1-for-15.
And what was Turner doing trying to bunt in the fifth after Schwarber led off with a double?
Turner followed up the failed, foul-ball bunt attempt with an unproductive out by grounding out to third. He didn’t even try to hit the ball the other way to at least move the runner over — despite getting an outside pitch he could have smacked toward right. Harper and Bohm then made outs to end the inning.
Really bad approaches at the plate by some of our best hitters, not being selective, swinging out of their shoes, and trying to pull everything.
Arizona definitely deserves credit, but we let them back in the series by blowing those first two in the desert. Even if we had taken 2 of 3 in AZ, and had come back home up 3-1, it would have been a different series.
I don’t trust Rob Thomson to manage our pitching at all, especially in tight games when offenses are being shut down — which happens a lot in every postseason. That’s when elite in-game managers are on point and inhabiting all the details, from pitching to pinch hitters to runners to moving guys around, etc.
I don’t trust Thomson in those situations at all. He has shown himself to be passive and analytics-driven. He used to be Joe Torre’s right-hand man, and his passiveness reminded me of Torre in the 2004 ALCS, when the Yankees blew a 3-0 series lead to Boston. The Red Sox went on to break their World Series curse, and it was the downfall of Torre with the Yankees, who didn’t really contend again for five more years (when they beat the Phillies in the ’09 World Series).
And I definitely don’t trust Thomson with handling pitchers. It was on full display in last year’s World Series against Houston, when he pulled Wheeler prematurely in Game 6, but it has been an ongoing bugaboo. Thomson doesn’t learn from it or change. It’s a big deal.
(Even when he pulled Wheeler with two outs to go in the ninth in Game 7 against the Diamondbacks, Wheeler had a look on his face like, “Really? Again?” but didn’t argue.)
By the way, while Thomson was wearing out our bullpen, did he forget that Taijuan Walker was on the roster? Walker, who tweeted after the Phillies lost the NLCS that “Disrespect is at an all time high,” led the Phillies with 15 wins this year. Thomson didn’t use him once in the postseason.
Again, what?!
Thomson likes to gamble that multiple relievers will all be on their game rather than sticking with guys who are dealing. Doesn’t analytics tell him that the odds are stacked against him?
He got away with it when he prematurely pulled Suárez in Game 3 of the NLDS against Atlanta (Ranger was visibly angry and shocked.) All six relievers Thomson used happened to perform well in that game, but that is beyond rare.
I have to believe Thomson’s mismanagement of his pitchers has become a source of tension in the clubhouse. It happened throughout the regular season, perhaps most notably when he gave Christopher Sanchez an early hook while he was throwing a no-hitter during an awful series in Pittsburgh at the end of July. I think the players are going to confront him about the issue.
They have to.
I don’t trust him with the pitching. I don’t trust him with the pitching. I don’t trust him with the pitching.
I’m not calling for Thomson to be fired (as if I have a say anyway). He runs a good clubhouse and the players play for him. But he does need to make some serious changes to his in-game approach, because this pattern is harmful.
He should have learned a year ago, against the Astros. The message needs to be sent up the chain, where many of his predetermined moves come from, even though some of the problem is Thomson himself, with his own situational panic and a deference to analytics that he can always justify to his bosses.
Phillies president Dave Dombrowki gave Thomson a two-year extension after last season, after Thomson took over in June of 2022 and led the Phillies to the World Series and became a popular figure. But that extension wasn’t exactly a vote of confidence. It was a wait-and-see move. Thomson will now be entering the final year of his deal.
Dombrowski believes in analytics, but he’s not someone who wants to die on that hill either. He needs to get the message, but you can’t count on an unlimited number of chances in life. This should have been the Phillies’ year. Next year isn’t promised.
It was a strong year for the Phils, but I really thought they’d get to the World Series and win it. So disappointing. And it’s on Thomson, the captain of the ship.
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Email Christiaan DeFranco at cdefranco@thereporteronline.com. Follow him on X at @the_defranc, or visit ChrisDeFranco.com.
