Rob Thomson Should Be National League Manager Of The Year
Plain and simple. Rob Thomson and the Phillies are 40-19 since him taking over the team. Let me repeat that, Rob Thomson has led the Phillies to 21 games over .500 in a short period of time. The Phillies discovered how to win baseball games. Rob took over for his good friend Joe Girardi and even though some (Ken Rosenthal) thought it wouldn’t make a huge difference, it has. It’s looking more and more like the Phillies should remove the “interim” title from Thomson and just give the man an extension. The Phillies now posses the 6th best overall record in baseball trailing only the Yankees, Astros, Mets, Braves & Dodgers. The heavyweights of Major League Baseball.
Last night the Phillies beat the NL’s likely Cy Young winner in Sandy Alcantara in come from behind late inning heroics. Again, they’ve found ways to win games under Thomson. Now the fellow managers he’ll find himself competing against are the Mets Buck Showalter, the Cardinals Oliver Marmol and the Padres Bob Melvin. All worthy candidates for the award this year. Showalter stabilized a high payroll Mets team. They were expected to be good and he helped make them good, certainly a job well done. Oliver Marmol, a rookie manager is doing a nice job in St Louis dealing with some injuries but has 2 MVP candidates in Goldschmidt and Arenado. Melvin deserves a bunch of credit for keeping the Padres in contention after losing Tatis Jr for the majority of the year. Ok, I’ve praised them enough.
None of them though have done the best job, that goes to Rob Thomson. Rob had to take over a team 8 games under .500, a team that appeared lifeless. He had to revive a clubhouse. He also had to deal with the loss of the reigning NL MVP and someone that looked prime to repeat that award. He’s dealt with the most difficult situation of the 4 managers up for the award. They’ve become the 3rd best team in baseball since he took the job. When you consider what he’s up against, I believe he’s got the best case for the MOTY award. “Topper” barring a catastrophe will be a playoff manager and will have Rob Thomson managing the club to start the 2023 season.
