Phillies fire manager Joe Girardi

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The Phillies have fired manager Joe Girardi.

Bench coach Rob Thomson has been named interim manager for the remainder of the 2022 season.

Girardi was 132-141 in three seasons as Phillies manager.

The team got off to a 22-29 start this season after spending past the luxury tax for the first time in franchise history. They are 12 games back already of the first-place Mets.

Girardi arrived with a winning pedigree from New York but failed to get the Phillies to the postseason in his first two years on the job and the team was staring at a huge deficit this year.

The firing came 36 hours after the Phillies snapped a five-game losing streak with a 6-5 win over San Francisco on Wednesday night.

After that game, Girardi acknowledged how badly the team needed a victory after losing five straight and going 10-18 in the month of May. Earlier in the week, the Phillies were swept in a three-game series by the Mets, dropping them to 3-9 against their NL East rival. After that game, Girardi was asked if he was concerned about his job status. 

"I don't worry about my job. I've never worried about my job," Girardi said. "I don't worry about my job. I've got to do my job. It's the business of being a manager. I don't worry about it."

Thomson, 58, is a longtime associate of Girardi's and a former bench coach of his with the Yankees. He has managed in the minor leagues but never in the majors. After 28 seasons in the Yankees organization, he joined the Phillies as bench coach under Gabe Kapler before the 2018 season. He was seen as a veteran baseball strategist that would be valuable to a first-year manager. Thomson stayed on in the same role when Girardi took over as manager before the 2020 season.

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