Rob

Thomson

Murphy received 27 of 30 first-place votes, with Terry Francona and Rob Thomson collecting the remaining three to finish second and third, respectively. The Brewers’ skipper earns the honor for the second straight year after guiding Milwaukee to an impressive 97-win campaign. He’s gone 190-134 (.586) during his two seasons at the helm. He’s just the third manager to take home the honor in back-to-back seasons since 1983, joining Bobby Cox and Kevin Cash.

It’s shaping up to be one of the tighter races in recent memory, with Francona appearing to hold a slight edge after guiding Cincinnati back to the postseason for just the second time since 2013. Murphy will look to capture the honor for the second straight season after leading the Brewers to a 97-win campaign. Thomson guided the Phillies to 96 wins and an NL East crown in his fourth season at the helm, yet has never finished higher than fifth in voting despite consistent success. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, November 11.

The rest of the coaching staff behind Rob Thomson will remain unchanged. Calitri replaced Thomson as the Phillies’ bench coach in 2022 when Joe Girardi was fired and Thomson stepped in as interim manager and had remained in the role ever since. That seemed to set him up to become the team’s manager of the future, but now they want to look outside the organization for a possible heir.

As of the moment, Thomson, who had his 2026 option picked up a year ago, would be a lame duck. The Phillies are 346-251 since Thomson replaced Joe Girardi about two months into the 2022 season, but their postseason results have been getting worse; they lost in the World Series in 2022, the NLCS in 2023 and the NLDS the last two years.

Thomson’s season ended in disappointment with a loss to the Mets in the NLDS in four games, but the Phillies were one of the best teams in the sport prior to that. The 61-year-old will also have his entire staff come back for the 2025 campaign.

The Phillies had signed Thomson to a two-year extension after the 2022 season, so this will now add one more year to his contract with the team. Earlier this offseason, the Phillies also extended their hitting coach Kevin Long to a contract through 2025. Thomson took over the Phillies top coaching job in the middle of 2022 after the team dismissed Joe Girardi. The team went 65-46 under his leadership to close the season and made the World Series before losing 4-2 to the Astros. They then won 90 games this year and lost in the NLCS to the Diamondbacks. Thomson previously spent 15 seasons as a coach between the Yankees and Phillies.

The 39-year-old Ramos has spent the past two seasons as the pitching coach with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He’ll replace Dave Lundquist, who has been on the Phillies’ major league staff since 2018. The team announced his departure following the team’s exit from the NLCS.

The move will keep one of the most highly-regarded hitting coaches in the league in Philadelphia through the 2025 season. The Phillies have already inked manager Rob Thomson to a two-year deal and third base coach Dusty Wathan to a multi-year extension this off-season after winning the National League pennant in 2022.

Wathan interviewed for the Royals and Marlins managerial gigs, but he’ll remain with the Phillies instead. The 49-year-old will likely be a candidate for jobs again after the 2023 season.

The Phillies’ decision to remove the interim title felt inevitable after Thomson guided the Phillies to an impressive 65-46 record during the regular season and also led them past the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card round. The two-year contract extension ensures that Thomson will be at the helm for Philadelphia next season and potentially through the end of the 2024 campaign.