Dombrowski defends Phillies' quiet offseason with spring training on the horizon
The Phillies president of baseball operations touched on many topics concerning the current state of the organization during his appearance on the SportsRadio 94 WIP Morning Show.
The start of spring training is near as the Philadelphia Phillies' first workout will take place in Clearwater on Feb. 14. On Wednesday, Dave Dombrowski, the president of baseball operations, spoke about several topics during a guest appearance on the SportsRadio 94 WIP Morning Show.
Among other topics, Dombrowski defended the Phillies' quiet offseason, explained his desire to give young players on the roster an opportunity, and gave us a peek behind the curtain in the effort to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Dombrowski defends the Phillies' lack of moves this offseason
While contending teams in the National League such as the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers have been among the most active clubs in roster moves this offseason, the Phillies have been relatively quiet aside from the re-signing of Aaron Nola, which they addressed back in November.
Entering the offseason, Philadelphia's primary need was finding a second starter in the rotation with Nola becoming a free agent. The club took care of that hole in its roster by agreeing to a multi-year deal with him, potentially making him a life-long Phillie in the process with a seven-year contract.
Dave Dombrowski admits the Phillies have had a “quiet” offseason, but not because they haven’t been trying to make moves.
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Dombrowski mentioned the lack of offseason moves is partly due to the organization wanting to allow opportunities to some of their young players on the roster.
"If we're going to be the organization that we would like to be throughout, we want to give young players an opportunity," Dombrowski said. "And those guys are guys like Cristopher Sánchez, who did a good job for us ... and that gives us five really established major league starters.
"[Orion] Kerkering in the bullpen, and if he comes in, that gives us six people, three from the left-hand side with [José] Alvarado, [Gregory] Soto, and [Matt] Strahm, and three from the right-hand side with Seranthony [Domínguez], [Jeff] Hoffman, and also with Kerkering there."
The Phillies president of baseball operations mentioned allowing the same opportunities to their young positional players, specifically Johan Rojas.
"We want to give an opportunity to Rojas," Dombrowski said. "He did not have a good postseason offensively, but he played well for us before, and he's an outstanding defensive outfielder so that makes us better right off the bat in that regard ... there's not a lot of other holes there if you're going to give Rojas the opportunity."
Philadelphia already has a good roster entering the season with not many needs, as Dombrowski reiterated. They don't have much room to guarantee a top free agent positional player playing time with the infield they have consisting of Bryce Harper, Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm, Trea Turner, and J.T. Realmuto. The outfield consists of Brandon Marsh, Nick Castellanos, and potentially Rojas. This factored into the difficult decision of letting Rhys Hoskins become a free agent.
The Phillies made an effort to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Dombrowski also discussed how much effort the club put forth in trying to sign Yamamato earlier this offseason.
"We were very involved in that," Dombrowski said "I think people would be shocked if they found out how much money we put on the table for him ... but he wanted to go to the Dodgers. That was just the way it was. I don't know if it had as much to do with the presentation of other things that happened earlier in his life where he was more of a Dodger fan."
"I think people would be shocked if they found out how much money we put on the table for him...but he wanted to go to the Dodgers. That was just the way it was."
— WIP Morning Show (@WIPMorningShow) February 7, 2024
— Dombrowski on Yoshinobu Yamamoto pic.twitter.com/bD8S8ImtRh
The signing of Yamamoto would have increased the Phillies' starting pitching depth at the top of the rotation. However, Philadelphia didn't have as much of a need for a top starting pitcher as some other teams following the Nola re-signing.
The Dodgers and some other suitors for the phenom pitcher, such as the New York Yankees and New York Mets, all had holes to fill in their respective starting rotations. Also, the length and amount of money Los Angeles agreed to with the pitcher — 12 years, $325 million carries a fair amount of risk for someone who has never pitched in Major League Baseball.
Adding Yamamato would have increased the pitching depth on paper. However, signing him would have created another roster decision: which pitcher gets bumped from the starting rotation? Sánchez? Taijuan Walker? It would be a good problem to have, but the Phillies felt they were satisfied with their rotation as constructed.
Dombrowski keeping an open mind with future roster changes
Dombrowski mentioned he is doing his job of keeping an open mind to any potential roster changes with spring training beginning next week.
"You keep an open mind towards everything," he said. "Every single day, I'm looking at who our list of players are, who might make sense for us. Not only now but also during spring training, we'll keep abreast of what's going on with all clubs."
The Phillies didn't wait long to resolve their primary need this offseason at the top of their rotation. Philadelphia has proven over the last few offseasons that if they have a roster need of significance, they will address it as they did with the additions of Harper, Realmuto, Schwarber, and Turner, to name a few.
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