00:00We just learned that Phillies manager Rob Thompson was relieved of his duties.
00:03So we are going to lead with that.
00:06We have plenty of other stuff.
00:07Travis Bazzana just got called up by the Cleveland Guardians.
00:10Jason Miller had his scoreless streak snapped and so much more.
00:13We will wrap with Clutch Performers here on the Tuesday Just Baseball show,
00:17as always, presented by BetMGM, a reminder to make it legendary.
00:21Thank you for joining us on audio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
00:25and on video, YouTube, X, and our friends at SportsGrid.
00:30Jack Mullen, Arm, Leighton, Peyton, Dinas hanging out as well.
00:34I mean, dude, it's crazy to think that Carlos Mendoza is the last man standing
00:39with Alex Cora getting fired at the tail end of last week, or I guess on Saturday,
00:43and then Rob Thompson being relieved of his duties on Tuesday morning with Philadelphia.
00:48We'll dissect the Rob Thompson deal.
00:51I don't feel good bringing it back to Mendoza this early,
00:54but let's talk about what went south with Rob Thompson in Philadelphia.
00:59I think this is another example, less egregious, obviously,
01:03than everything we saw in Boston, because I think there's a lot of issues going on
01:07in Boston from the roster construction to everything else, which we laid out.
01:12But this is just a flawed roster that there's nothing that Rob Thompson can do about.
01:19We've talked about it on the show.
01:21The back half of this lineup is brutal.
01:23So they put all their eggs in the Bo Bichette basket and had no plan B.
01:27They did not really address clear issues with the lineup.
01:32Again, not only did they not really have a plan B,
01:34the pivot was back to just overpaying JT Rio Muto to bring him back.
01:39You look at this roster, especially on the offensive side of things,
01:42and I don't even think you could point towards the back half of the lineup and say,
01:47I could see this getting better.
01:48I can't believe this happened.
01:49And I think it's been worse than we expected.
01:50I think the surprising part would be the pitching.
01:53But again, you knew that you weren't going to have Wheeler to start the year,
01:57and you knew that it would still kind of be up in the air when he comes back.
02:00You knew that you were going to thrust a rookie in Andrew Painter into the rotation,
02:03which is great.
02:04I think you had to be patient with him.
02:06But I think the combination of Painter, a guy that you need to be patient with and develop,
02:10and then Nola, who has just been a frustration for a little while now,
02:14it just feels like this team was kind of put in a spot where you could see things going south
02:20pretty quickly,
02:21and that's exactly what's happened.
02:23So Philly has dropped nine of their last ten ballgames here,
02:26and they're running out a rotation that is laced with veterans,
02:30and Tywon Walker is off the roster.
02:31Walker was the first roster casualty,
02:34but Rob Thompson is the manager that goes.
02:37Don Mattingly will serve as the interim manager.
02:40Don Mattingly has managerial experience.
02:42Obviously, he's been in dugouts.
02:43He's been in huge moments as a player,
02:45and Don Mattingly will kind of carry them the rest of the way.
02:48I did see a report put out by our folks at JustBaseball.com.
02:52I think Nightingale.
02:53Who is Nightingale?
02:54So I am curious.
02:56I want to see if anyone corroborates this one, but it's interesting.
03:00Allegedly, according to Bob Nightingale,
03:01Alex Cora was offered the Phillies managerial job before Don Mattingly,
03:06but declined Cora is focused on spending time with his family.
03:11Like, the body's still warm.
03:14Like, Cora just got fired two days ago.
03:16You would think that they would hold off on that,
03:18and it's common practice to just roll with an interim.
03:22If the Phillies were going to hire Alex Cora.
03:25Yeah, like, you have Don Mattingly,
03:26especially if the Phillies were going to hire Alex Cora.
03:29If they were going to make that move, it would happen this offseason.
03:32It would happen early.
03:33It would be in, like, November,
03:34but it wouldn't happen two days after he was fired by the Boston Red Sox.
03:38That was a really weird report.
03:41Do you...
03:42I hate asking, do you believe that,
03:44but do you think there's validity to that?
03:46I don't know.
03:48I think maybe a feeler call was sent out,
03:50but I don't know if it was, like, a full-fledged offer.
03:52It just seems a little bit weird.
03:55I'm hoping we get a little bit more context there,
03:58but it does seem a little bit, you know,
04:00I don't know, just unlikely.
04:02But it would be interesting if that was the case.
04:05Circling back to just the offense, right?
04:08Like, what are the free agent additions this year?
04:12Or, like, just the additions that they made to this team?
04:13Yeah, Adolis Garcia was non-tendered by Texas,
04:16and they pick him up, and he's in right field.
04:18And then Dylan Moore on the bench?
04:20Yeah, I think so.
04:21That's it?
04:21You were comfortable?
04:23Like, one, Adolis was, again, non-tendered,
04:25so that's a guy that you're buying low on,
04:27hoping for a bounce back.
04:28And then you're rolling...
04:30But after Turner, Schwarber, and Harper,
04:32you're just rolling with Garcia, Marsh, Stott, Boehm, Crawford,
04:36and then Rio Muto.
04:37Like, I could have told you that that group
04:39was probably not going to carry their weight
04:42relative to the top three.
04:44Again, kind of like a frustrating situation there offensively.
04:50And then, yes, you're hoping that the team
04:51can pitch its way to success,
04:54but you lost your best guy,
04:56or at least your second best guy,
04:57because I think Christopher Sanchez has been amazing
04:59in terms of...
05:00Wheeler, I think, can be solid for them this year.
05:01But what are the odds that Wheeler is going to be
05:03what we've seen the last couple years?
05:04It's less likely than it is likely,
05:07even if he is solid.
05:09And then, Nola, you're older.
05:11This bullpen, you know, I think is good,
05:13but I still think had some question marks, too.
05:16I don't know how you could blame anything on Rob Thompson here.
05:20This has been one of the worst teams by ERA,
05:22and it's been one of the worst teams by WRC+.
05:24And there just was not much done this offseason to address.
05:28I think you could say they addressed the bullpen a little bit
05:30with the Brad Keller addition,
05:31but this was very much a run it back again
05:34with a Phillies team that's been running it back
05:36for several years now.
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