Rob Thomson is no longer the "interim" manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Corunna native had the '"interim" tag dropped from his title on Sunday when the Phillies announced that they had signed him to a two-year contract extension to manage the team in 2023 and 2024.
The 59-year-old became the Phillies interim manager June 3 when the team fired Joe Girardi. From that day forward, the Phillies rebounded from a sub .500 record and won 65 of their remaining 111 games and secured the third wild card spot in the National League. Over the weekend, the Phillies swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the wild card series to advance to the National League Division Series, where they will meet the defending World Series Champions, the Atlanta Braves. Thomson is the first Canadian-born manager to lead a team in the Major League Baseball playoffs.
"As time progressed, it became apparent that Rob was the right person to lead this team and our club's on-field performance over the course of the season certainly reinforced that," president of baseball operations David Dombrowski told the Associated Press. "His calm demeanor and ability to communicate with players and staff has greatly benefitted the Phillies and we are excited to formally name him our manager going forward."
Thomson joined the Phillies organization in 2018, when he was hired to be then-manager Gabe Kapler's bench coach. He stayed in that position when the Phillies hired Joe Girardi to replace Kapler in 2020. Thomson had been Girardi's bench coach with the New York Yankees. Prior to joining the Phillies, Thomson had been in the Yankees organization for 28 years, serving in several positions, including bench coach, third base coach, director of player development, and vice-president of minor league development.