To Dombrowski, this has look and feel of a winner

Dave Dombrowski didn’t need the Phillies, didn’t need their bullpen, didn’t need that starting rotation, two-and-a-half arms deep.

He didn’t need to flush out his resume, not at age 64, not after helping build two world championship teams, not after agreeing to a latecareer challenge to bring the big leagues to Tennessee.

At this point in his professional life, Dave Dombrowski didn’t need to take control of a baseball operation that hadn’t been in the postseason since he was 54. At this point in his life, Dave Dombrowski didn’t need the Philadelphia press, or the Odubel Herrera dilemma, or to be the one responsible for making John Middleton’s $330,000,000 Bryce Harper investment be worth twice that much to a franchise.

Dave Dombrowski didn’t need the Phillies.

Dave Dombrowski wanted the Phillies.

That’s why he bristled in December when asked if he was ready to take over a team in transition. That’s why he thrust out his chest Tuesday, when the only preseason question that mattered came in high and tight on a zoom meeting.

The question: Four months, one spring training, a bundle of moves and a wisp of reality later, does the Phillies’ new president of baseball operations still expect to hoist flags, and to hoist them soon?

“Well, we’re in a strong division, no question about it,” said Dombrowski, back from Florida, two days before the season opener. “But we’re trying to win the division. That’s what we’re trying to do, make the playoffs and win the division. That’s what our goal is at this time.”

That is the default position of every player, manager and executive after spring training. But Dombrowski is not every executive. He’s a four-time pennantwinner who has sent nine teams to the postseason, and twice he has ridden in the upper deck of a parade bus. If he wanted a building project, he would have stayed in Nashville. If he wanted to wipe his eyes of recently sprayed champagne, he would take over a team with Harper and J.T. Realmuto, with Aaron Nola and Alec Bohm, with Zack Wheeler and Didi Gregorius, with Joe Girardi on the top dugout step.

That he chose to oversee the Phillies meant he believed they were ready. Six weeks in Clearwater didn’t cloud that view. He still sees a first-place-ready starting rotation, a capable bullpen and a run-scoring offense. Plenty of that was of his doing, which is why Middleton hired him to replace the indifferent Andy MacPhail. But it’s there, Dombrowski said. It’s there. “We’re in a position right now where we can compete,” he said. “You look at our everyday lineup. It’s really good. Our starting rotation? It’s interesting. I read articles all the time, and it’s like Zach Eflin doesn’t even exist in national publications. We really like him a whole bundle. For us, it’s not just Nola and Wheeler. Eflin is very good. And I think, as four-andfives, Matt Moore and Chase Anderson have a chance to help us.

“Our bullpen? We think it’s improved.

We hope it’s improved. They have to go out and prove that. And if all those things click, I do think we’ll score runs and we will have a chance to compete at some point.”

Dombrowski is a winner, as is Girardi, and together they will work, maybe this year, definitely by next. “I like Joe a lot,” Dombrowski said. “He’s not only a good person, he is a good baseball man. He’s got a pulse of the entire situation. He is a great communicator. He works with his staff well. He’s good with his players.

“He’s not a guy who says, ‘I’m 100 percent correct with this.’ He’s willing to listen to what other people have to say, yet he’s strong enough to express his opinion. I like working with him a great deal.”

Dombrowski re-signed Realmuto and Gregorius, and he refurbished his bullpen, adding Archie Bradley and Jose Alvarado and some other hard-throwing pieces. Moore and Anderson need to pitch back to impressive earlier-career past performances, but Dombrowski sees something, and his baseball word is good.

“I don’t mean to sound Pollyannaish or anything, but health is really important,” Dombrowski said. “If we’re healthy, I think our positional players will score runs. I think we’ll be good. So if we’re healthy, that takes care of itself.”

If there was a flash-card synopsis of the 2020 Phillies, it was that they were quite good, but only until Girardi lifted that bullpen phone. The bullpen is different. The back of the rotation is better. And the baseball-ops president, who knows a championship side when he builds one, is optimistic.

“Now, we are not going to mortgage our future,” Dombrowski said. “We’re not going to trade our top, No. 1 draft choices for a guy for one year at this time. If we get to July and we’re five games in front, then we can have further discussions on those types of moves.”

If the Phillies are five up in July, the fans will demand Dombrowski be a buyer, not a seller, and to chase a championship. Given his record, chances are he won’t respond with, “If we don’t, we don’t.”

And, yes, it was a hint and what he sees when he slipped in that bit about being five games in front by July. It’s the same thing he saw when he took a job that he didn’t need.