Despite early season struggles, Phillies Rob Thomson ‘keeping things in perspective’

Philadelphia was sunny with a bit of chill in the air Thursday afternoon. Phillies Manager Rob Thomson sauntered out of the tunnel and into the dugout for his normal pregame media availability. The air was brisk, but nothing compared to the weather the last few nights. His team has lost five of their last seven games, and are at risk of losing their third-straight series after dropping another game to San Francisco on a windy Wednesday evening.

A slow start for the Phillies

Losing three straight series is something Philly hasn’t done since July of last season. Heck, they haven’t lost a series at home since then, either. Thomson has long preached the importance of winning at Citizens Bank Park, in front of the die-hard fans that make it such an electric place to play come October. Rob knows his team isn’t playing to their potential, but he’s not worried. He is doing what he preaches – keeping a positive outlook for his club and where they stand.

“I think we have to play better in every aspect of our game,” Thomson told reporters Thursday. “Pitch a little bit better, swing the bats better, play better defense – We just have to play better. We haven’t put it all together yet, but we win today and we got the exact same records we had last year at this time. So, let’s keep it in perspective.”

Context matters

Some of the issues plaguing the Phillies in the early season have fans frustrated – they seem to be similar issues to what they saw from a team that won the National League East last season, but fell to their division rival, New York Mets, in the first round of the playoffs. Bullpen struggles, figuring out center field, and not delivering timely hitting, at least from a fan perspective, seem to have carried over from 2024.

Despite those things being true, Thomson is right – perspective is important. Should the Phillies win today, they will have the exact same record that they did 19 games into last season. They seem to be better in several categories as a team. Here’s how the fare in several categories at this point in 2024 vs. 2025:

• Bullpen ERA: 2024 – 5.01 ERA vs. 2025 – 4.84 ERA
• Bullpen K/BB ratio: 2024 – 2.58 vs. 2025 – 2.40
• Offense Slash line: 2024 – .231/.301/.353 vs. 2025 – .239/.329/.382

The only part of the team that is seemingly worse to start this season is surprisingly the performance of the starting pitchers. Thought to be the strongest part of the Phillies coming into the season, their ERA is more than a whole run higher than it was at this point in 2024 (2.69 in 2024, 3.78 in 2025).

Everyone knows that there are changes coming to the rotation eventually. With Ranger Suárez working his way back from a lower back injury, and uber-prospect Andrew Patiner making progress in his recovery from Tommy John surgery, Philadelphia should be able to stack their rotation with better arms starting as soon as May.

This could impact a bullpen that has found the its club experimenting with different roles and opportunities for every arm out there. First, it was off-season signing Jordan Romano’s struggles that paved the way for some different looks. The heir apparent for those opportunities, fellow newcomer Joe Ross, has also began to falter. Last season was Ross’ first look at pitching essentially full-time in relief, and Thomson was asked if there’s any concern with his ability to fit in that role:

“Last year when he came out of the pen he was really good. So again, it’s been a small sample size for him. He threw the ball pretty well in spring training. He’s been kind of hot and cold, a little bit inconsistent so far.  He’s had a couple of good games and a couple of bad games, so, I don’t think it’s a problem coming out of the pen for him. I just think he’s, just not clicking right now.”

Things seem to be not clicking for all the newcomers, including Carlos Hernández. The late waiver pickup was expected to fill the long man role while Taijuan Walker plugged the hole in the rotation left by Ranger’s absence, but he’s failed to find the sharpness that led him to a 3.30 ERA in Kansas City last season. I asked Topper about Carlos, and if there is anything specific he’s seeing or wants to see from the flame throwing right-hander:

“(He has to) just power the ball through the zone, really, and he’s still working on that curveball – he wants to get that back. But really it’s throwing strikes, power the ball through the zone, trust your stuff.”

I asked Thomson specifically if he has had to rethink his approach to the bullpen, and if there’s a new pecking order for his guys. He told me he thinks they still have their main four guys (José Alvarado, Orion Kerkering, Romano, Matt Strahm), but he’s “Just gotta work through which, part of the lineup (everyone) attacks and make sure – hopefully you’re right.”

Hitting Woes

While pitching has been problematic, at least the offense is filled with stars – right? Well, on paper, the answer is yes. Looking at results, the club has struggled outside of maybe three hitters – Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, and Kyle Schwarber.

Really, there’s only one guy hitting well with runners in scoring position, and that would be Harper. Jeff Kerr of CBS Philadelphia noted on X (formerly Twitter) that Harper is hitting .364 with a 1.563 OPS with RISP. The rest of the team? How about a measly .200. Not what anyone wants to see from their team, especially not the manager. Thomson was asked that if he had to pick one area that bothers him the most, he had an answer right away:

“I think probably our offense overall, but they’re working on it. And I’m not complaining, because I know it’s coming, but I think that we’re a better hitting team than what we’ve shown so far.

Regression has shown for quite a few players – Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, and Bryson Stott all seem to have taken a step back from the back of their baseball cards in the early going. Marsh especially has looked lost, hitting under .100 after a very strong April in 2024.

Stott came up as a guy who could handle himself against both left and right handed pitching. This season, he is regularly subbed against a strong LH starter. Bohm has started hitting the ball hard, but the ball has to start falling for it to truly make a difference. Still, Thomson isn’t worried:

“it’s early in the year. That was my message to the guys at the start of the series, Thomson told reporters prior to Wednesday’s game. “You look up now and you’re hitting a-buck-10 or whatever it is. Well, at that time, we’re 15 or 16 Games in. So it’s just…if you’re going through the same struggles in the middle of July or August, probably is not going to move your your batting average too much. So you got to keep it in perspective. Just keep grinding.”

There it is again – keeping things in perspective. Rob loves a good mantra. Last season, it was “get lost in the team.” Phillies fans – and likely the players – hope they have a more positive mantra to live by as the season goes on.

For now, it truly is your outlook on the struggles. Are they truly carried over from prior years, or just like the Eagles a year ago – are fans allowing years of not getting to the promised land to cloud their judgement of a team that is still in the first month of the season? They have the same record, and sit in the same place in the standings, that they did a season ago.

A season where they won 95 games – the second most in baseball. A year where they snapped a 13-year N.L. East title drought. But it’s early – so yeah, they might not be where fans had hoped, but as Thomson says – it’s all about perspective.

Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images