The Phillies won 95 games in 2024, the fourth-best total in the 141 years of the franchise’s existence. They won the National League East for the first time in 12 seasons. They entered the Fourth of July weekend series 51-36. They are on pace to win 96 games in 2025.
It’s kind of a miracle.
The miracle worker: manager Rob Thomson.
There are those who cannot bring themselves to appreciate Thomson’s excellence and diligence. They will point to Game 6 of the 2022 World Series, when, as a rookie manager, he played the analytics and took out his ace. They will cite the National League Championship Series collapse against the Diamondbacks a year later, when he trusted too much his All-Star closer and a rookie the team president dearly loved (and loves). They will blame the Phillies’ stalled offense in the National League Division Series last season, when they couldn’t small-ball the Mets.
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Thomson has grown. Zack Wheeler stays in as long as he’s effective. Craig Kimbrel is gone and Orion Kerkering has matured. Their 92 homers this season ranked 16th entering the weekend, in the second half of the league, and they’ve been small-balling like the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1980s.
The Phillies’ best player from 2024, Bryce Harper, had 20 homers and 58 RBIs after 87 games last season. He has just nine homers and 34 RBIs in the team’s first 87 games this season because he has been injured.
The Phillies’ closer from 2024, José Alvarado, had 13 saves after 87 games. He has just seven saves this season because he is serving an 80-game PED suspension.
The Phillies’ No. 2 starter from 2024, Aaron Nola, was 9-4 with a 3.43 ERA, and the team was 13-4 in his starts, after 87 games. Nola is 1-7 with a 6.16 ERA because he was injured, and will be for the foreseeable future.
Three of the team’s five most important players entering 2025 have been absent, ineffective, or both. Still, they win.
Who’s carrying them? Nobody, really.
That’s why Thomson’s work is so important.
Designated hitter Kyle Schwarber is in the middle of the best season of his career. Thompson moved him from leadoff to No. 3 or No. 4. Thomson and his staff made this move mainly to protect Harper, who usually bats just ahead of Schwarber.
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Trea Turner, who turned 32 on Monday, is enjoying a renaissance. Thomson replaced Schwarber with Turner at the top of the order, and, entering the weekend, Turner led the National League with 104 hits, and, most significant, he was No. 4 among everyday shortstops in most fielding metrics, such as Fielding Run Value, which (so far) he has improved from minus-2 last season to plus-7 in 2025, and Outs Above Average, which went from minus-3 to plus-eight. Thomson and his staff spent six weeks this spring retooling Turner’s defensive style.
Thomson has deftly used Edmundo Sosa to support stalled (relative) youngsters Alec Bohm at third base and Bryson Stott at second.
The Phillies’ outfield is fourth-worst in the majors in wins above replacement (WAR). The three teams that trail them are a combined 84 games below .500, and two, the Rockies and White Sox, are the worst teams in baseball. By winning percentage, the Phillies entered Independence Day the fifth-best team in baseball.
Still, they win.
Thomson has had to manage an offensively deficient outfield, mainly the center-field platoon of Johan Rojas, who was hot for the first six weeks, and Brandon Marsh, who’s been hot for the last five. They’re not the problem.
In his fourth season as a Phillie, Nick Castellanos remains a poor right fielder and an offensive bust in relation to his prior self, which earned him his five-year, $100 million contract. Max Kepler, the $10 million savior in left field, is hitting .210. Remarkably, both were involved in playing-time disputes with Thomson in the past 2½ weeks.
Thomson calmed the troubled waters. Casty’s OPS has jumped 131 points since he was benched for dissing Topper in front of the boys. Mad Max’s jumped 27 points. That’s managerial genius.
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He’s been just as crafty handling the fourth-worst bullpen in the league, gutted by Alvarado’s absence.
Of the 50 relievers with at least two saves, Phillies saves leader Jordan Romano, who had eight, also had the worst ERA, at 7.28, and it’s the worst by about 10%. Romano signed a one-year $8.5 million contract to bolster the bullpen. And, sometimes, he does.
Meanwhile, under Thomson’s careful watch, Kerkering, in his third season, has developed into a high-leverage stud, allowing just two earned runs in his last 25 appearances. Thomson has navigated the landmine season of overused lefty Matt Strahm.
More than anything, the team’s first-place status hinges on Thomson’s deft usage of his starting rotation, which is the best in the National League. After Wednesday night’s win, its 3.30 ERA and 34 wins led the NL, while its 529 strikeouts and 491 innings pitched led all of baseball.
It helps that Zack Wheeler leads that rotation, since he’s been the best pitcher in the majors after arriving in Philadelphia six seasons ago. But lefties Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suárez, and Jesús Luzardo all have pitched to All-Star levels — all guided by Thomson and his staff.
Suárez spent the first month on the injured list, and he’s been brilliant since.
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Sánchez had a scare with forearm soreness in late April, but he’s 5-1 with a 2.42 ERA since.
Luzardo, the staff’s newcomer, went 5-0 with a 2.15 ERA in his first 11 starts, then gave up 20 runs in his next two because he was tipping his pitches. But they fixed that and was brilliant in four of his last five starts.
Thomson and his staff manage a talented team of diverse personalities with the proper mix of respect, freedom, discipline, and strategy.
And they win, and win, and win, and win.