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Let’s Take a Look at Dave Dombrowski’s Offseason Acquisitions

Luke Arcaini

By Luke Arcaini

Published:

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Dave Dombrowski signed four players this past offseason that are currently on the Phillies’ major league roster. Let’s take a look at the group and how things are going through the first four months of the season.

Max Kepler

Kepler signed a 1-year, $10 million contract. It was a weird fit from the day it happened. I liked Kepler’s game in Minnesota, but it was obvious at the time, and even more obvious now, that the Phillies needed a right-handed power threat. Instead, Dombrowski settled for Kepler.

Kepler has accumulated a 0.2 WAR in 82 games. He’s slashing .212/.308/.379 with 56 hits, 10 home runs, 30 RBIs, and a .687 OPS. Kepler holds an 89 OPS+. He’s upset that he’s not playing every day, while he has a .595 OPS in the limited availability he’s gotten against left-handed pitching. If there’s a positive to pull out of the Kepler season so far, it’s his defense in left field.

He has not been the player the Phillies had hoped for.

Jesus Luzardo

Luzardo had a 2.15 ERA on May 25th through his first 11 starts. The lefty was acquired along with Paul McIntosh for Phillies prospects Emaarion Boyd and Starlyn Caba. He once had a 1.94 ERA in May. He now has the 52nd-best ERA in baseball at 4.44, while holding the 66th-best WHIP at 1.47.

Yes, a lot of this is skewed by two putrid starts, back-to-back vs. the Brewers and Blue Jays a month ago. But Luzardo hasn’t looked like himself since those blow up starts. He fixed his mechanics after the Phillies determined he was tipping pitches, and now he can’t get an out when he’s in the stretch.

The Luzardo trade was absolutely successful, don’t get me wrong. But there are more questions around Luzardo than there were two months ago.

Jordan Romano

The good, the bad, and the really, really ugly. That’s been the Romano experience in Philadelphia through his first 36 appearances.

Romano underwent arthroscopic surgery on his throwing elbow in July of 2024. He was healthy when the Phillies signed him. He’s still healthy. He just can’t put it all together.

The Romano experience started off incredibly ugly. He had a 15.75 ERA on April 6th. He started to find it over the next few outings, then allowed 6 earned runs and almost blew a 7-run Phillies lead to the Marlins the day before Easter. He then logged a 2.53 ERA in May and allowed just three earned runs in the entire month, but his ERA has never been under 6.00 this season. He was on the mound last night for one of the craziest endings I’ve ever seen to a baseball game. It was the first time that Rob Thomson tried to stretch Romano into another inning, and he didn’t really have another choice:

The veteran reliever just can’t find it this year. The signing has been a disappointment. The Phillies watched Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez walk out the door, knew they had a thin bullpen, and brought in a guy coming off of elbow surgery and a swingman.

He has not been the player the Phillies had hoped for.

Joe Ross

I didn’t really understand the Joe Ross signing when it happened. He had success in Milwaukee as a reliever, but was always a hybrid guy, almost like how the Phillies are using Taijuan Walker this year. The Phillies had a swingman when they signed Ross… in Taijuan Walker. They never had a spot in the rotation for Walker this offseason. It was set up to be Wheeler, Sanchez, Suarez, Nola, Luzardo.

Why another swingman? I don’t know, and it doesn’t help that it hasn’t worked out. Ross has a 5.53 ERA this season in 28 appearances. He has a 6.33 ERA at home. He had a 7.20 ERA in June. It’s not a lock that Ross will be on this team in October.

He has not been the player the Phillies had hoped for.


Have you figured out what I’ve said about 3 of the 4 acquisitions?

“He has not been the player the Phillies had hoped for”

It was an absolute fail of an offseason for Dave Dombrowski. If the fans had control, 3 of the 4 players that he signed would be DFA’d by now. The only other player, Jesus Luzardo, has been very shaky recently.

The trade deadline is 22 days away. Dombrowski doesn’t have a great track record of big deadlines in Philadelphia. Does that change this year? It should. You have two more seasons of Zack Wheeler, one of the best pitchers in the history of your organization. Kyle Schwarber is under contract for 70 more games and the postseason. There’s a very good chance that he re-signs in Philadelphia. Is that a lock? No, nothing is a lock.

The Phillies, historically, are the most losing franchise in baseball. They haven’t won a World Series in this era, and it’s already one of the more successful ones in the history of the team. Dombrowski is letting it slip away because of roster construction.

Some of the biggest conversations the front office has had in years will happen over the next three weeks. The Phillies are finally starting to put together a respectable farm system. You can’t blow it all up, but you also can’t let the city of Philadelphia down again with a mediocre deadline.

Postseason baseball is weird. You don’t have to be the best team to win the World Series. The Phillies weren’t favored in any series in 2022. They won every single one except the last one. It’s all about getting hot, but the guys getting hot have to make sense next to each other.

If a big move isn’t made on the last day of July, this could be heading towards another disappointing ending.

Luke Arcaini

Luke Arcaini writes about the Phillies for Crossing Broad, covers the Phillies for FOX Sports The Gambler, and co-hosts "Phillies Digest" on YouTube. The wave is the worst thing in all of sports. Contact: lukearcaini8@gmail.com

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