Barely 48 hours after the Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora and six other coaches, a second team struggling to start the 2026 season on the right foot has made a leadership change. The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Tuesday that manager Rob Thomson was being relieved of his duties. Bench coach Don Mattingly has been named as the club’s interim manager for the remainder of the season.

Thomson was first elevated (from bench coach) to the manager job in Philadelphia when Joe Girardi was fired after 51 games (the team was 22-29 at the time). Thomson led the team to a 65-46 mark over the rest of the season, and Philadelphia reached the World Series (losing in six games to Houston). Overall, the Phillies were 355-270 under Thomson’s guidance, a .568 winning percentage (the highest in franchise history), and made the postseason each year.

As The Athletic’s Matt Gelb notes, the club entered the season “carrying the largest payroll in franchise history with World Series-or-bust expectations”. Entering Tuesday, the team’s 9-19 record is tied with the Mets for the worst mark in baseball.

Gelb and his colleague Ken Rosenthal reported just a few hours later that the Phillies had made an “intense” push to hire Cora as Thomson’s replacement. Cora preferred to remain home in Puerto Rico for the summer, where he can coach his nine-year-old twin sons and prepare for his upcoming wedding in the fall. The Cora/Dombrowski connection may come up again later in the season, as Gelb and Rosenthal note that Mattingly is “not expected to be a long-term choice”.

Mattingly only joined the organization as bench coach this fall, after several seasons in the same role in Toronto. Mattingly accepted the job at the time in part due to his relationship with Thomson, but it was also a family matter — his son, Preston, is Philadelphia’s general manager and No. 2 decision-maker in the front office alongside Dombrowski. Mattingly previously managed the Dodgers and Marlins for a combined 12 seasons, with a 446-363 (.551) record.

Third base coach Dusty Wathan will assume Mattingly’s role as bench coach. Triple-A manager Anthony Contreras will join the staff to handle Walthan’s duties as third base coach.

Braves left-hander Chris Sale further strengthened his Hall of Fame case on Monday, striking out nine over six scoreless innings in a 6-2 win over the Phillies. The outing gave him 2,617 SO for his career and moved Sale up to 28th on the all-time strikeouts list and seventh among left-handed pitchers (in far fewer innings). He also collected the 150th win of his career.

(* Hall of Famer; ** Future Hall of Famer)

Next up for Sale to chase: David Cone with 2,668 SO and Frank Tanana (the next lefty on the list) with 2,773 SO.

Among active players, only Justin Verlander (266), Max Scherzer (222), and Gerrit Cole (153) have won more games.

Sale is in his 16th season in the big leagues. The 13th overall pick in the 2010 Draft made his debut just two months after being selected by the White Sox and has enjoyed an impressive career. Through Monday’s start, Sale has posted a 3.00 ERA (142 ERA+) over 2119.0 IP with 496 BB (5.8 BB%, 2.5% better than league average) and the aforementioned 2,617 SO (30.7 K%, 9.5% better than league average). Sale is a nine-time All-Star, won a Gold Glove Award (2024), and won the NL Cy Young Award in 2024 (with top six finishes in voting every season from 2012 through 2018).

Plenty of (justified) criticism is leveled at the Los Angeles Angels and their owner, Arte Moreno, over the organization's dysfunction. The trend has only grown louder in recent years, as examples of the club’s shortcomings continue to come to light. These problems have not been limited simply to how the roster gets constructed.

The troubles have extended to Angels Stadium (now the league's fourth-oldest stadium). Late last season, for instance, several players publicly complained that the club had refused to fix the air conditioning in the team’s weight room and clubhouse.

Orange County Public Health officials recently conducted a routine inspection of Angels Stadium and discovered a rodent infestation, leading to the shutdown of concession stands in section 432 of the ballpark. Per details shared by Outkick’s Alejandro Avila, officials discovered at least five “concerning” locations with signs of rat droppings, plus they cited a “ceiling hole larger than a quarter inch” that freely gave them a pathway to move between the rafters and food stands. It’s unclear how long the section will remain closed.

White Sox utilityman Tanner Murray made his MLB debut in April, hitting .214/.281/.321 (68 OPS+) in 33 PA, but the rookie’s season is over after injuring his shoulder on a diving catch during Sunday’s game. Initially diagnosed as a dislocated shoulder, further testing revealed a small fracture that will require surgery. Murray is expected to be sidelined for four to six months.

Dubai’s Baseball United completed its inaugural season in January. Just weeks later, co-founder and CEO Kash Shaikh stepped down from his role leading the league. The announcement seemed to call the future of Baseball United into question, though no further announcements have been made since then regarding his potential replacement. Shaikh, meanwhile, has landed at Perfect Game (which runs and manages youth baseball and softball tournaments across the country) as the organization’s new chief marketing officer. Shaikh will also have a hand in expanding PG’s presence on the international stage.

Drew Ehrhard signed with the Red Sox as an undrafted free agent in 2023. Over parts of four seasons in the club’s minor league system, the catcher hit .233/.306/.376 in 363 PA, reaching as high as Double-A. The 27-year-old appeared in 11 games this season for the Portland Sea Dogs, hitting .132/.277/.316 in 45 PA, but will reportedly retire to take a job as a bullpen catcher for the Red Sox under interim manager Chad Tracy.