Dave Dombrowski misses the mark on Phillies fans’ offseason frustrations

The Philadelphia Phillies’ disastrous offseason keeps getting worse, as president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski decided to treat irritated fans like ungrateful five-year-olds rather than accept any responsibility for the sorry state of the team.

In an interview with sports talk radio station 94 WIP this week, Dombrowski took umbrage with the oft-used complaint that the team is “running it back” yet again, asking if the fan base would be happy with change just for the sake of change. Unfortunately, the erstwhile decision maker’s comments completely missed the mark.

Dave Dombrowski misses the mark on Phillies fans’ offseason frustrations

The Phillies’ offseason has consisted largely of retaining aging pieces, as the team cut massive checks to re-sign Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. Dombrowski was also forced to release clubhouse cancer Nick Castellanos after torpedoing what little trade value he may have had left, and traded away fan favorite Matt Strahm for an underwhelming package.

To top everything off, the club let homegrown postseason hero Ranger Suárez walk in free agency and failed to add any bats to a lifeless lineup outside of reclamation project Adolis García.

Phillies fans are fed up, and they have every right to be. A club that came two wins away from a World Series victory in 2022 has produced progressively more embarrassing results in each subsequent October, culminating in a predictable faceplant this past season.

The offense that has failed to show up in each of the past three postseasons hasn’t received a meaningful upgrade in that span, and the pitching staff that has been among the best in the league now has significantly more question marks between Suárez leaving, Aaron Nola’s career-worst year and Zack Wheeler’s scary injury.

After Orion Kerkering threw away the team’s championship aspirations four months ago everyone knew changes needed to be made. Everyone except for Dombrowski that is. 

Re-signing Schwarber was his first order of business, as it should have been. Losing the MVP runner-up would’ve left an insurmountable hole in an already-shaky lineup. However, aside from that nothing should’ve been off the table. The club made a run at superstar Bo Bichette, but a public depantsing by the New York Mets left the Phillies without a backup plan, and Dombrowski pivoted back to Realmuto, handing a contract worth far too much money over too many years to the declining former star. 

And what was Dombrowski’s rationale for this? Here it is in his own words: “It’s a situation when you look at that, we had the best free agent catcher available in J.T. Realmuto. Would you be happier if we brought a lesser player back just to make a change?”

The false dichotomy presented by the veteran executive is maddening, as he treats the situation as an either/or. If a three-year, $45 million contract is going to be given to a catcher, shouldn’t it be our beloved J.T.? You wouldn’t want some other, worse player like Victor Caratini instead would you? No, Dave, we wouldn’t. But those aren’t the only options. We could’ve taken a downgrade behind the plate and saved money to reallocate that to another position.

For instance, we could have signed Caratini for the two years and $14 million that he got from the Minnesota Twins, and also given last summer’s shot in the arm Harrison Bader the two-year, $20.5 million pact he received from the San Francisco Giants in order to shore up an outfield mix that has been among the worst in baseball ever since the exodus of Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth.

Not only would that have spread out the money between two capable players instead of one, but it also would’ve saved the team a total of $10.5 million that could be used to upgrade other spots.

The gaslighting didn’t end there, as Dombrowski also condescended in regard to the Schwarber deal, essentially telling fans to be happy that they got anything at all, positing “We won 96 games last year … If we decided not to run it back and not re-sign Kyle Schwarber back would people be happy?”

The false dilemma is back again, as Dombrowski tells the people who pay his salary that letting Schwarber walk would’ve been change, but is it change we really want? Completely ignoring the fact that changes come in all shapes and sizes. Retaining Schwarber is a continuation of the existing state of the team, but that is not the only way that the team could have changed. There are 25 other players on the roster, plenty of whom can be upgraded upon. 

Instead of giving us the sixth straight season of pretending that Alec Bohm is an above-average player, or continuing to wave the white flag every fifth day by letting Taijuan Walker start games, the Phillies could have brought in a new third baseman or starting pitcher. But we should count our blessings because at least they still have Kyle Schwarber.

Dombrowski seems to struggle with the concept of change, and that's been what has sunk the Phillies in four straight seasons. Change doesn’t have to mean getting rid of your best players. Change also doesn’t mean shelling out way too much money for a past-his-prime catcher just to get the band back together. What change does mean is identifying areas of weakness and working to improve them.

Swapping out Castellanos for García is a change, but who knows if it will be a positive one? Replacing a negative-WAR player with someone who is a better fielder, but is coming off back-to-back sub-.700 OPS years is not the most inspiring shakeup. Ditto for shipping out Strahm and backfilling the bullpen with unestablished names like Jonathan Bowlan and Kyle Backhus. They could be something, but they could be nothing, and they’ll need to replace a former All-Star.

It appears Dombrowski just can’t wrap his head around what Phillies fans want, but it shouldn’t be too hard to grasp. We don’t want to burn the ship to the waterline just because we’re frustrated. We just want to see meaningful upgrades to a talented squad that has failed to deliver when it matters most. If Dombrowski wants Phillies fans off his back he needs to stop pretending that running it back is enough, and do what it takes to get this team over the hump.