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Dave Dombrowski Deserves Blame for the Weird Phillies Vibes
By Sean Barnard
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Dave Dombrowski has served as the Phillies’ President of Baseball Operations since 2020. This is a role that carries plenty of responsibilities, with just about anything that happens under the organization falling under his jurisdiction. Dombrowski has caught plenty of heat for an underwhelming offseason in terms of free agency. But an area of responsibility that Dombrowski has not paid enough attention to is putting out fires before the flames get fanned.
Throughout this era of Phillies baseball, “good vibes” have been a common theme. Especially in contrast to the pressure-cooker the Eagles reside in, and the borderline disinterest of the oft-injured 76ers, the Phillies have been a team capable of exceeding expectations and showing their personalities while doing so. But as expectations continued to rise, these “good vibes” began to deteriorate.
This became increasingly clear in last season’s underwhelming postseason ending to the eventual champions and has been fully put on display before this year’s spring training even started. There is always going to be a disconnect between front offices and players in sports, and a disconnect between authoritative figures and those who operate under them in society. But for Dombrowski individually, it’s not just preventing the fires from growing larger, but directly causing them himself.
It was a strange choice to publicly question if Bryce Harper is still elite. This has been a talking point played out for quite some time and falls under the Crossing Broad principle that multiple things can be true. But what was clearly evident when Harper arrived at spring training was that the comments had still stuck with the face of the franchise:
You can critique Harper for being overly sensitive and critique Dombrowski for making the comments in the first place. But the bigger crime here was Dombrowski not putting in the effort to fix these hurt feelings or at least doing so in an effective manner before he faced questions about it. Harper has been on a bit of a media tour himself and was quick to offer a quip about this with the first given chance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast. For what it was worth, I was unable to find the date when this was taped. The podcast dropped on February 17th, and Harper made a comment about having two weeks before training camp in the episode:
This was obviously going to be a talking point coming into spring training, and the fact that Harper still seems agitated about it is an issue. Maybe this was just Dombrowski poking the bear and expecting this to bring out the best in the Phillies star, who is not immune to criticism. But the tone of Harper’s response did not make it seem like the two have exactly let bygones be bygones.
A similar principle applies to the Nick Castellanos situation. It was the worst-kept secret in the league that the relationship between Castellanos and Rob Thomson was fractured beyond repair. This was essentially common knowledge by the end of last season, and Dombrowski himself did not exactly inspire confidence in the situation following the season. But rather than electing to cut losses and release Castellanos in the offseason, this saga continued into spring training.
Sure, you can make the case of waiting it out for a team to get desperate and trade you something for the disgruntled right fielder. But every MLB team was able to (accurately) read the situation that they could just wait and sign him as a free agent. The San Diego Padres were quick to capitalize on this, and the Phillies will be paying Castellanos just over $19.2 million of his $20 million salary to play elsewhere.
The Phillies had their bases covered by dropping their version of a tell-all of why the relationship with Castellanos and the organization soured. But rather than make this decision in the offseason and allowing plenty of time for the dust to settle, it took until every player except Castellanos was present at spring training this year to ultimately cut ties.
In the grand scheme of things, these are small factors that will not make or break a season. But there is a different vibe surrounding the team than is expected for the Phillies, or you hope to be the case for any MLB team leading into the season. Spring training should be a time when expectations and excitement are building for the upcoming season, when the chapter of last season has been written, and all focus has shifted to the upcoming year. But this does not seem to be the case down in Clearwater. The stench of last year’s first round exit and awkward offseason is still permeating through the team. Dombrowski being the root of this makes it especially frustrating. This, coming after an offseason in which the biggest excitement was adding a few bullpen arms and having their prized free agent target sniped by the Mets, only twists the knife a little more.
Sure, maybe Andrew Painter and Justin Crawford look like impact players from day one of their rookie seasons. Or Adolis Garcia is able to return to All-Star form. Maybe Alec Bohm finally figures out how to convert his 6-foot-5 frame to hitting for power, or Bryson Stott can take his game to another level.
But it sure feels like this team is running it back, while refusing to call it this, and having more internal frustration in doing so. They say winning covers up a multitude of sins, and the Phillies desperately need this to be the case. The damage is done from the offseason, and baseball cannot start soon enough.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.