Phillies manager Rob Thomson spoke earlier today about what he learned from the Phillies' NLCS loss to the Diamondabcks. His answer, somewhat surprisingly, had to do with managerial moves that he is now second-guessing.
"Reflecting on it, there are a lot of decisions being made bullpen wise, so there are some things there that I would want to change," Thomson said. "And I'm not going to be specific. The lineup situation, there are some things there where maybe I need to be a little bit more adaptable. But every decision I make, there's always a reason. Now, was the reason correct. Those are the things that I reflect on."
He continued on the train of thought later in the press conference when asked for specifics in regards to questioning the lineup decisions:
"Both. Both the moving people around, pinch-hitting. All those things I think about or I reflect on, almost everything on a nightly basis. And then after the series was over I'd go back and work through each game and try to figure out, 'okay where could we have done some things differently.' And some things, even things that went well, you're looking at and thinking 'okay, was that really the right move because that could've backfired.'"
Nearly all of the manager's decisions have been thrust under the microscope after the team's 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks in Game 7. Some of the more controversial include his usage of Craig Kimbrel in the 8th inning of Game 4, the lack of lineup movement despite Alec Bohm's struggles and allowing Johan Rojas to bat with the bases loaded in the 4th inning of the deciding game.
While Thomson's moves were concurrent with stars Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper combining to go 0/23 in the final two games of the series, it has been the manager's decisions driving much of the post-loss conversation.
The debatable mistakes throughout the series were even enough for 94WIP midday host Joe Giglio to say he's 'starting to doubt Rob Thomson as the right manager to win the World Series.'
The Phillies are not making any managerial moves, though. President Dave Dombrowski expressed a vote on confidence in his manager during today's media session.
"Well, we just played in a World Series last year. We played in the NLCS, one game away from going to the World Series again this year. I think he's done a tremendous job in steering our club. He's a good baseball man, I enjoy working with him, I know the players respect him a great deal...He's been successful. And we're all disappointed we didn't win, if your final judgement is based upon you're going to win the World Series, that's it. There's about 29 other managers that would lose their jobs every year."
All that is left now is the ability to second-guess everything leading up to the final out of Game 7, then hope lessons can be learned entering the 2024 season.