The MLB season is not quite 20% finished for 2026 and already two managers have been fired. First on the list was Alex Cora – fired by the Red Sox. Typically, when a manager in MLB is axed, he takes the fall alone, but in Boston this year the club opted for sweeping changes. Along with Cora, five of the coaches for the Red Sox were put out of work. I found that interesting because the reports of the blood letting in Boston also mentioned that six other coaches for the Red Sox were retained in their positions. Frankly, I was surprised that MLB teams had a manager and 11 coaches on the payroll.
Things have gotten very specific in Boston; one of the coaches who was fired was the “Major League hitting strategy coach”. Seriously. Here is my first impression of the coaching tips such a coach might impart on his charges:
- Get the barrel of the bat on the ball as often as possible.
- That’s all I got …
When the Sox management pulled the trigger, the team record was 10-17; only four teams in MLB had worse records at the time. I think one possibility for the firing was that on that date, the Sox’ record was worse than the woebegone Colorado Rockies and the owner could not abide that level of embarrassment.
One of the teams that had had a worse record than the Sox when Cora was fired was the Phillies and yesterday, the Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson. The Phillies have the worst record in MLB as of this morning at 10-19, but if you put Rob Thomson into some perspective, you might wonder about that decision.
- Thomson’s record in Philly is 355-270 – – win percentage = .568
- The last Phillies manager with a higher win percentage was Arthur Irwin who managed the team in 1894-1895 and had a win percentage of .575.
- Thomson has been with the team for 4 seasons, and the Phillies have been in the playoffs all four years.
- Somehow, he is the reason the team has gotten off to a slow start in 2026 …
[Aside: Before someone checks my stats and finds that a Phillies’ manager in 1960 posted a win percentage of 1.000, I too found that in my research and ignored it because it involved a total of 1 game. That manager was Andy Cohen – – the Tuscaloosa Terror.]
If you look at the MLB standing this morning for something other than the win/loss records, you will notice something about the Phillies. They have scored fewer runs than 27 of the other teams in MLB and it is tough to win games when scoring runs is a rarity. And I am hard pressed to think of many situations where it was the manager who scored or drove in any runs other than player-managers who have not been commonplace in MLB for about the last 40-50 years.
The Phillies have a run differential of minus-47 this morning and the next worst run differential is at minus-25 shared by 3 teams. So, the manager is not only to blame for the lack of scoring but also for the allowance of runs by the pitchers and the defenders. Don Mattingly will take over the manager role in Philly with the team 10.5 games behind the Braves in the NL East.
Moving on … I want to acknowledge the perspicacity of a former colleague here. In my NFL Pre-Draft analysis, he sent me a note about the QB from UConn who had not thrown an INT in the first 9 or 10 games of the season and told me to include him in my annual rant on prospects. Well, Joe Fagnano was not drafted last weekend, but he was immediately signed as an Undrafted Free Agent by the Baltimore Ravens. Let me tip my hat to my former colleague …
Finally, here is a definition from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:
Soup: The culinary equivalent of taking a bath in one’s own filth, soup is a way of offering your dinner guests a heaping bowlful of everything in your fridge that was about an hour away from becoming rancid. Yum.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………