PHILADELPHIA — For most of the last two years, Rob Thomson has managed the ebbs and flows of his veteran hitters on vibes. When it works, it goes by the label of savvy man management.

Most of the time, in crafting a team that could consistently win baseball games, Thomson sought to first ruffle no feathers. When Alec Bohm stood at his locker at Citi Field after the Phillies’ capitulated to the Mets in the NLDS last year and wondered why the media would deign to ask him if he’d change anything for next season, implicit in his stubbornness was that he had a manager who would back him for continuing to do things that he’s always done.

So this year, even as Nick Castellanos continued to struggle, the reasonable expectation was that Thomson would keep managing as before. Castellanos could be

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