Dombrowski takes on new challenge
Former Sox boss set to join Phillies
Just when you thought MLB’s virtual Winter Meetings were going to be about as dry as a winter cough, Dave Dombrowski made a splash.
What’s new? Dombrowski, who in recent Winter Meetings orchestrated a blockbuster trade to bring Chris Sale to the Red Sox in 2016 and spent $68 million on a four-year deal for Nathan Eovaldi in 2018, stole the show on Thursday, when The Athletic reported Dombrowski was on the verge of becoming the new president of baseball operations for the Philadelphia Phillies.
While the timing is on-brand for Dombrowski, the situation is not.
The Phillies haven’t made the playoffs in nine straight seasons, despite having an opening day payroll north of $140 million in five of those seasons, including the last two since they signed Bryce Harper to a 13-year, $330million contract.
They now find themselves in a position without much financial flexibility, leaving what is thought to be minimal wiggle room for Dombrowski to add talent.
Worse, the Phillies don’t have a lot of assets to use as trade bait. They have “one of MLB’s shallowest and worst farm systems,” according to Baseball America back in May, when they ranked the Phillies 26th out of 30 teams in organizational depth.
They have no money, no prospects and are hiring someone known as one of the most aggressive general managers in the last 40 years.
The conclusion is that Dombrowski isn’t going to Philadelphia to do the same thing he’s done everywhere else, including Boston, where his four opening day payrolls were $198 million, $197 million, $234 million and $236 million, respectively, and where he left a farm system universally considered one of the five worst in baseball at the time.
The logical explanation is that Dombrowski, who turned 64 in July, is looking to make perhaps a final push to change the narrative of his career and do something different.
It’s a chance for him to rebuild quickly, to pull the strings for an organization that needs both more talent and excitement at the big league level and some depth to add to a depleted farm system.
Sound familiar? It’s almost as if he’s entering the same situation he left in Boston in 2019, when the Sox had minimal money to spend and few prospects to trade.
Perhaps this is his way of sticking it to John Henry, who kicked Dombrowski to the curb in the middle of the 2019 season after the two disagreed on the direction of the franchise. Dombrowski wanted to stay aggressive. Henry wanted to rebuild. The owner got his wish.
Chances are, the Phillies will start spending again, if not now then soon. The 2020 free agent class isn’t exactly a blockbuster group, with Trevor Bauer, George Springer and DJ LeMahieu leading a pact of mostly mid-level talent.
How Dombrowski takes the Phillies forward should be much more interesting to watch than what he did with the Red Sox, which was more of a cookie-cutter approach to building a winning team: sign the best players to the biggest contracts, and trade the best prospects for the best available trade acquisitions.
He let go of Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Manuel Margot and others for Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel. And it worked.
He signed David Price to a historic $217-million deal, and while it was arguably a terrible contract, Price was instrumental to the Sox on their way to a 108-win regular season and World Series title in 2018.
“He pitched well and his contractual situation is a good one,” Dombrowski said after the ‘18 World Series. “It’s a good one for him and it’s a good one for us.”
He signed J.D. Martinez to a five-year, $110-million deal that felt appropriate and turned out to be another deal that was good for both parties. Dombrowski read the market strategically and waited Martinez out until spring training.
Dombrowski hired Alex Cora, which was a fine move.
He also made some deft in-season trades, particularly during 2018, though his inaction in July, 2019, led to questions, albeit ones that the team’s poor performance down the stretch answered quite definitively. Perhaps he was right not to make additions to that group.
The worst thing Dombrowski did was re-sign Eovaldi for $68 million just before locking up Sale and Xander Bogaerts to long-term extensions. The sizable financial commitments made it inevitable that Mookie Betts would get traded, as he was in February, 2020, shortly after Chaim Bloom was hired to replace Dombrowski.
Still, there was little doubt that Dombrowski did his job in Boston and did it well. The Red Sox weren’t left in great shape on his way out, but they had another World Series trophy and would take the trade most days.
If anything, Dombrowski’s adventures in Philadelphia could prove an interesting juxtaposition to Bloom’s in Boston, particularly given how similar the situations are that each inherited.
Bloom is building the future, but just came off a season in which the Sox posted their worst winning percentage since 1965. If the Red Sox can’t rebound as fast, or faster, than the Phillies under Dombrowski’s leadership, questions will surely be asked.