2024 is the last on Rob Thomson’s two-year contract. He said he can’t control what happens next on a possible extension, but that he can see himself with the Phillies for a while longer.
But now, he’s the Phillies’ full-time manager, having guided the club through back-to-back late-season pushes to the playoffs and back-to-back appearances in the NLCS, where they’ve both times looked as if they caught lightning in a bottle, all while their home ballpark turned into one of the most electric places on earth – even though this season ultimately, painfully, fell short of their World Series expectations.
It’s been quite the ride, but suddenly one where Thomson and the Phillies have to start thinking about where it goes next as the 2024 season will be the last on Thomson’s current two-year contract.
But right now, they haven’t talked about anything yet in reards to a possible extension, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said during his exit interview on Thursday. Their season only just ended, and the sting of the seven-game NLCS defeat to the Diamondbacks is still fresh.
They’ll get to it though, Dombrowski added. And as for any potential uncertainty or concern Thomson might have over his contract:
“That doesn’t really bother me,” he said. “My whole career, I’ve never worried about my contract, never worried about the length of my contract, I’ve never worried about getting fired, because I can’t control it. I just can’t, so I leave it alone. I put my head down and do my work and whatever happens happens.”
And while the final result of the 2023 season is disappointing right now, it’s hard to argue that the overall body of work Thomson has put together so far isn’t impressive.
Since taking over for Girardi as manager at the start of June 2022, the Phillies have gone 155-118 across the past two regular seasons, and in the postseason, have stormed right through it up until hitting a wall against the Astros in the World Series last year and then against the Diamondbacks in the NLCS for this one. 
On the whole, he’s had the Phillies playing good baseball – not to say that they can’t be better, which everyone has been quick to point out right now, including Thomson himself – and he can see that continuing well beyond 2024.
“Believe me, I love this city, this organization, this team,” Thomson said. “I’ve never had as much fun in my life as I’ve had the last couple of years. So yeah, I can envision that.”
Definitely a far cry from the retirement plans he originally had.
“Well, we just played in the World Series last year,” Dombrowski said. “We played in the NLCS and were one game away from going to the World Series again this year, I think he’s done a tremendous job in steering our club.”
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