Rob Thomson is Phillies’ current scapegoat, but Dave Dombrowski deserves to be fired even more

The Philadelphia Phillies became the second team in MLB to fire a manager after the club announced it was moving on from Rob Thomson on Tuesday. With the franchise starting the 2026 season with an abysmal 9-19 record, the front office felt a change was necessary, and Thomson was the odd man out. But there’s another name that is arguably more deserving of being canned, and that’s Dave Dombrowski.

Firing Rob Thomson, who is 62 years old, feels like a scapegoat move for an organization that hasn’t won the World Series since 2008. Although the Phillies have made the playoffs in four of the five seasons Dombrowski has been the President of Baseball Operations, Philadelphia hasn’t gotten out of the NLDS the past two years.

Sure, the Phillies had the second-best record in the NL last season, and have won 90 or more games in each of the last three campaigns. But what has it gotten them besides an early vacation in the fall?

When the Phillies hired Dombrowski in December of 2020, the idea was to bring him in to help the team become a “win-now” franchise. To his credit, they nearly did in 2022, losing the World Series to the Houston Astros in just Dombrowski’s second season in charge. But since then, the team has seemingly fallen apart in the postseason every year, and now it just feels like the entire organization is crumbling to pieces in 2026.

So what happened? What has led to the Phillies’ demise through the first 28 games of the 2026 season? Well, it may have begun just this last offseason when Dave Dombrowski openly claimed that Bryce Harper, an eight-time All-Star and two-time MVP, was no longer an “elite” player who could return to MVP form. Even if that’s true, why would you say that out loud to anybody?

Those comments sparked unnecessary rumors that had Harper fighting back with the organization he’s been playing for since 2019. While the 33-year-old slugger had at one point claimed he moved on to focus on baseball, it’s hard to imagine Dombrowski’s words didn’t affect the locker room somehow. We might be seeing the aftermath right now with the Phillies tied in last place of the entire NL with the New York Mets.

On top of that, four of Dombrowski’s five key acquisitions in the offseason haven’t played up to par so far this year. Jhoan Duran was, and is having an elite start to the campaign, owning a 1.35 ERA and 0.750 WHIP with five saves in seven appearances. However, he’s out right now with a left oblique strain, which doesn’t help the Phillies whatsoever.

Outside of Duran, the other four offseason additions are not playing too well. Adolis Garcia is hitting below his career batting average, owning a .230 batting average through 100 at-bats. Meanwhile, Matt Strahm (4.66 ERA), Tanner Banks (7.20 ERA), and Jesus Luzardo (6.91 ERA) are getting lit up on the mound nearly every time they make an appearance.

Between failing to make a deep playoff run the past two years, upsetting one of the franchise players in Bryce Harper, and making the wrong signings in the offseason (so far, at least, there is still time for the Phillies to turn things around), the organization may want to take a look at Dave Dombrowski’s impact on the team, using a “what have you done for me lately,” type of approach.

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