McCaffery: Clues point to Dombrowski’s next moves

PHILADELPHIA » The dusting for the fingerprints has concluded, the parsing of the words complete, the study of facial expressions overanalyzed, the evidence prepared. Before the end of the week, in what will be the first job-defining moment of his presidency, Dave Dombrowski will be “aggressive” in his effort to give the Phillies a better chance to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2011.

What does that mean? Follow the clues, which suggest a robust pursuit of a closer, perhaps AllStar Craig Kimbrel, and perhaps another starting pitcher.

In conversation about the deadline, Dombrowski basically volunteered the topic of adding a closer. “And I’m not even saying we’re going to do that.” But he brought it up, and his hedge was so immediate that it had the scent of camouflage.

Obviously, the Phillies, who had blown 23 saves before entering play against Washington Monday, would be a different team with a different record and a different mindset with an established closer.

Though the Mets have emerged as the leading contenders to land Kimbrel, the Phillies have been oddly slow to commit to Ranger Suarez as their closer. Dombrowski even suggested that the 25-year-old left-hander’s future is as a starter.

The Phils had been waiting two years for a useful closer, and there was Suarez, who had a 0.00 ERA in the 11 games he finished this season. Yet for days, neither Dombrowski nor Joe Girardi were committing to him as their ninth-inning pitcher.

Clues …

The Phillies also need a starting pitcher. Two actually. Three, if Spencer Howard can never make it deep into a game, and he didn’t Monday. With that, Girardi’s pregame attitude toward his upcoming rotation dripped with the possibility that they would have at least one new starter by Thursday.

Technically, Vince Velasquez, who has had a seven-plus ERA over his last four starts and complained Saturday after being hooked after 53 pitches, is on the work schedule for Thursday.

Yet nothing Girardi said suggested the assignment was firm.

“Vinny has struggled,” Girardi said. “I get that. But right now, it’s Vinny.” Right now?

What could that possibly mean other than before Thursday there would be some other alternative?

That could be Chase Anderson, newly reactivated after a lengthy Covid-IL hitch. But if the Phillies are considering offloading Velasquez, who would be able to bring in a low-minorleague arm from a fringe contender in a take-achance trade-deadline play, there would be no reason to formally drag him out of the rotation four days before he was about to pitch.

So obvious is it that the Phillies will look for another starter before the deadline that Dombrowski linked adding free agent Cole Hamels to the possibility.

“If you sign him, you’re basically telling him you’re giving him a spot in the rotation,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t know right know if we cam 100 percent say that.

“In five days, six days, will I be able say that? Perhaps.”

Zach Eflin, ever-tender throughout his career, is recovering from an ouchy knee, but not at the pace the Phillies had hoped.

“He’s getting better,” Girardi said Monday, adding, “but he’s not where we need him to be.”

Zack Wheeler is an AllStar. Aaron Nola pitched like one in a critical, 2-1 victory Sunday over Atlanta. But no team is winning a playoff spot with dependability from 40 percent of its rotation.

The Phillies are going to do something about that rotation.

Clues …

While it’s possible Dombrowski will add offense before Friday, it’s unlikely he will land an everyday player.

He has acknowledged, for he would know better than to insult Philadelphia fans with a denial, that his team plays poor defense. But to dramatically alter the structure of a lineup which has been productive enough to stay in NL East contention despite the rickety bullpen is not a risk he must take in the final week of July.

“I still believe we need to make the routine plays defensively and we need to hit,” he said. “And when we don’t hit, the defensive shortcomings are going to show up. I don’t think there’s much we’re going to be able to do about that at this time of the year. I really don’t.”

So there they are, the fingerprints.

Dombrowski has conceded there is nothing he can do about his everyday eight. Girardi is not really committed to Velasquez in his rotation.

There is enough of a push for pitching that the Phillies quietly are considering Hamels as a Plan B.

And while Dombrowski is volunteering conversation about a new closer, the Phillies are hesitant to commit to Suarez as their current one.

Before going underground for a week of roster re-tooling Saturday, Dombrowski gently left open a door. Something could change, he said, if “all of a sudden you got crushed seven in a row, and the Mets won seven in a row.”

That didn’t happen.

For that, a telling week is on.

Enough clues indicate how it will end.