The 2025 season ended in familiar heartbreak for Philadelphia Phillies fans. After being one of the best teams in the sport throughout the regular season and winning the NL East with relative ease for a second straight year, they lost in the NLDS to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sure, the Dodgers are really good, but the Phillies were supposed to be too. That can't be the excuse every year - every postseason team is good.
This marks their second consecutive NLDS defeat, and their third straight postseason exit before reaching the Fall Classic. The Phillies have proven year after year that they have what it takes to get to the postseason and even put themselves in a prime position to go on a deep run, but also fall short.
Despite four straight years of postseason appearances without a World Series trophy, the last two of which have resulted in just one total postseason win, the Phillies, against all odds, seem intent on running things back.
President of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, staying put doesn't come as a shock, but as we go down the line, the decisions made certainly have been surprising. Not only is manager Rob Thomson staying put, but the Phillies have decided to extend his contract. I don't know about extensions for his coaches, but they're all coming back, too. Not a single change in the front office or dugout will be made. The only new change is that the Phillies plan on adding a Major League Field Coordinator.
Dave Dombrowski says they will add another year to Rob Thomson’s contract for after 2026 pic.twitter.com/1X5A759CrR
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) October 16, 2025
Not a single change being made after how this past season ended means just one thing - the Phillies are committed to being underachievers.
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Phillies just admitted they're satisfied falling short of World Series
How is nobody taking the fall at this point? The Phillies made the World Series in 2022, and have only regressed in October since, yet everyone's jobs are just safe?
Admittedly, Dombrowski isn't going to fire himself, and it isn't necessarily Thomson's fault that they've continued to fall short in October (even with him being far from perfect) - the good position players simply haven't performed - but shouldn't they want to try something new? For what it's worth, I didn't think it was Joe Girardi's fault that the team underperformed to begin 2022, yet they took off after firing him and replacing him with Thomson. Sometimes teams need new voices.
I can understand wanting to give Thomson one more shot, but why the extension? Why does a guy like Kevin Long, the hitting coach, get a pass when their good hitters just don't show up in October? These are questions Phillies fans would love to know the answer to.
Dave Dombrowski must make major player changes
Running it back with the coaching staff is only somewhat acceptable if Dombrowski is willing to make major player changes. I'm not talking about re-signing most of their free agents and finding a random platoon outfielder to replace Max Kepler - I'm talking about making a star-level change.
What might that move be? I have no idea. Can the Phillies afford to sign a marquee free agent like Kyle Tucker? Would they take a massive swing to bring a star position player to town on the trade market? What I do know is that the Phillies can't just run this back fully and expect a different outcome. We've seen four years of the Phillies falling short, and the core is only getting older. Chances are, 2026 would only be worse if real changes aren't made.
Every seat in this organization should be on fire at this point. This has to be this regime's last chance to get the job done. It just has to be. Until major changes are made, we can't say anything other than the Phillies are satisfied with being stuck in baseball's purgatory, which is the worst place to be.