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Does Dave Dombrowski Still Like His Club?
By Tim Reilly
Published:
In January, Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski offered an optimistic appraisal when asked for his view of the upcoming season.
“I like our club. We have a good club.”
This rosy assessment echoed in my mind as the team sputtered to a 9-19 start, dismissed manager Rob Thomson, and installed Don Mattingly as Thomson’s interim replacement after a not-so-secret courtship of deposed Boston Red Sox skipper Alex Cora.
It continued even as the Phillies impressively clawed themselves back into the NL East division race, riding the hot bats of Kyle Schwarber and Brandon Marsh as well as the dominant pitching of Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler, and Jesús Luzardo.
Baseball fans—the diehards, anyway—are natural pessimists. We can’t help ourselves. Skepticism is the scab that covers the wound of the seven-year-old kid who watched Joe Carter touch ’em all in 1993 and now, at the age of forty, laughs as the beleaguered Miami Marlins, recent losers of twelve straight games, smack around the lifeless and helpless Phillies on the way to a series sweep. You have to laugh, because it beats crying. And there’s no crying in baseball.
Laugh as a team with a payroll north of $300 million boasts a grand total of zero everyday outfielders. Laugh as we watch Trea Turner, he of the nine-figure salary and -0.3 WAR, butcher one grounder after another at shortstop while looking nothing like the batting champ from last year at the plate. Laugh as Alec Bohm continues to be miscast as a cleanup hitter. Laugh as this roster, so devoid of depth and talent, somehow has managed to carry three catchers on the roster for a large chunk of the season despite the aging J.T. Realmuto’s workload remaining as busy as ever. Laugh as the Phillies continue to forfeit one game every five days because they don’t have a dependable fifth starter. Laugh because you remember the Phillies are paying $18 million of John Middleton’s money to Taijuan Walker not to pitch and $20 million to Nick Castellanos not to play.
Laugh it up!
“I like our club. We have a good club.”
It’s hard to decide if the Phillies are worse at the plate or in the field. The Marlins scored their first run of the game on Monday when Otto Lopez stole second base, advanced to third as the ball bounced away from Bryson Stott, and then scored when Turner misfired trying to get Lopez out at third. It’s a series of events you expect in Little League, not the Big Leagues.
When they’re not throwing the ball all over the yard, the Phillies are hacking away impatiently at the plate. Pitchers take advantage of their lack of discipline, getting one easy out after another. It’s a story we’ve seen over and over again since 2022. But don’t worry, the team’s key decision maker likes the club.
He also wants you to know, through his allies in the media, that he’s working overtime on the phones to improve the team at the trade deadline. Dave Dombrowski is aggressive. He wants to win. He’s a future Hall of Fame executive.
The farm system doesn’t have the extensive prospect pipeline that the Dodgers have seemed to construct, but somehow Dave is going to find the momentum to take that big swing. He dispatched his scouts to watch Tarik Skubal’s last start in Detroit. Righthanded bats like Angels outfielder Jo Adell and Twins centerfielder Byron Buxton have been mentioned. If a difference maker is available (or, in Buxton’s case, even if he is not), the Phillies are in the market.
Just don’t ask about the untouchables. No, you can’t have Francisco Renteria, the teenager hitting the cover off the ball in the Dominican League. And Gage Wood is off the table, too. Maybe one day they’ll join the untouchable Andrew Painter, currently wandering somewhere in Allentown in a desperate search for his fastball, and Aidan Miller, last spotted in a Florida chiropractor’s office.
It’s important to give Dave space while he does the important work of reinforcing this leaky ship that he swore would float when the season started. And it’s even more essential that malcontents like Bryce Harper keep their ungrateful mouths shut. How dare he look around the clubhouse and ask for help! Doesn’t he know this is a good club? Good thing Mattingly (the manager, not the general manager Preston—bureaucratic hierarchies and feelings can get messy when businesses become family businesses) put his star first baseman in his place. Ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears, Bryce, and just focus on getting better!
In that same spirit of self-improvement, I wonder if it would be too much to ask of Mattingly the manager to get a little bit better in managing his bullpen or having a better feel when taking his starters out of the game. Is it asking too much of Mattingly the general manager to put a word in with his boss to give his father some better chess pieces to maneuver on the board?
Because, despite what the manager might think, the Phillies will need to add at the deadline. Their payroll and their position in the standings demand it, even if it might not be the most prudent course of action in the long term. Trader Dave is on the prowl. He’s going to re-evaluate everything. He’s going to fix the bullpen that he thought was fine in January. He’s going to fix the lineup he thought was fine after the postseason shortfalls of 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. He’s going to bolster the starting rotation.
Just trust Dave Dombrowski. When has he ever let us down?
Tim Reilly is a freelance writer from Northeast Philadelphia. He can be reached at reillyt7@gmail.com.