Phillies President of Baseball Ops Dave Dombrowski was on the 94 WIP Morning Show Wednesday and they shared some clips:

Dombrowski: “I think overall that assessment is accurate. Quiet doesn’t mean inactive. We’ve been active on many different things, as far as staying abreast of what’s going on. But you know it’s been quiet after – our first real big goal was getting a starting pitcher, with Aaron (Nola) becoming a free agent. Of course we were fortunate to sign him, which was a big signing for us. That really stabilized our starting rotation.”

It’s never sexy when a club’s big move is re-signing one of its own players. But you have to agree with Dombrowski when he says they don’t have “gaping holes” on the roster. They should have gone back to the World Series and it was a choke job that did it, not a lack of talent. He wants to give an “opportunity” to younger players and names Cristopher Sanchez, Orion Kerkering, and Johan Rojas. We’ll try to forget about Rojas’ offensive output in the playoffs, or lack thereof, but those guys flashed at times last season and have a lot of upside.

Otherwise, the upgrades are where? Taijuan Walker’s spot, probably. Could use always use more right-handed assuredness in the bullpen and the bench isn’t very exciting. Pache, Sosa, Cave, Stubbs? Okay. And we have to keep in mind that Bryce Harper is healthy and is going to be available from day one. Kyle Schwarber can just DH and the younger starters (Marsh/Stott/Bohm) all have another year of experience. The drop off candidates are probably Castellanos and Realmuto, but we’ll see.

Dombrowski covered a lot of topics on the show.


Here’s the full interview: