Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper made a brutally honest comment about how the team’s recent managerial change may have helped them.
The Phillies improved to 6-1 since firing Rob Thomson with a 1-0 win over the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park on Monday. Harper admitted there was probably a correlation between those two things, and that Thomson’s firing brought a finality that allowed the players to turn the page on a bad April.
“I think we were all just waiting for that ball to drop, waiting for something to happen,” Harper admitted. “If Topper was going to get fired or he wasn’t, it was just kind of, ‘We need to get over this hump and get through this,’ whatever that looked like.”
Bryce Harper, on the Phillies’ 6-1 record since Don Mattingly replaced Rob Thomson:
— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) May 5, 2026
“I think we were all just waiting for that ball to drop, waiting for something to happen. If Topper was going to get fired or he wasn’t, it was just kind of, 'We need to get over this hump and…
One of the reasons teams sometimes fire coaches in the middle of a season is that on occasion, it actually works. Teams cannot get rid of their entire roster of players, so sometimes the best thing to do is send a message by making a change at the top.
Thomson, ironically, knows this. He replaced Joe Girardi midseason in 2022, and his appointment had a similar affect on that year’s Phillies team. In a certain sense, he is a victim of his own success.
For now, Don Mattingly still has the interim title for Philadelphia. If the wins keep coming, that might not last long.
