July 16, 2026
I swear I was minding my own business, trying to think positive thoughts while engulfed in the annoying worlds of soccer and baseball, when I got an email the other day from one of my former listeners about the horrific job Dave Dombrowski has been doing as GM (or technically, president of baseball operations) of the Phillies.
Hey, it’s not like I was unaware of the bad contracts and lame trades Dombrowski has made in his five-plus seasons as the roster-builder here. But I have never been as inclined to criticize him as, say, Daryl Morey, Danny Briere or, occasionally, even Howie Roseman. My best guess why is, when you replace two boneheads like Andy MacPhail and Matt Klentak, the bar is too low to allow for a negative analysis.
But the emailer, Todd Cohen, has been quicker to move on from the infamous “If we don’t, we don’t” era than me. During his screed, I realized that I have missed not just the boat but the entire ocean with Dombrowski. He has been a bad GM here, saved only by the heroics of a few stars he inherited and a couple of new faces he added.
Since Todd made a better case against Dombrowski than I have even attempted, here’s a sampling of some of his indictment of the current Phillies organization:
Wasted Money
I checked Todd’s calculation, and it is exactly right. The Phillies have over $47 million sitting on the sidelines, or at home, right now. They wasted $20 mill on ex-Phil Nick Castellanos, $15 mill on ex-Phil Tajuan Walker and another $10 mill on sidelined-for-the-season Adolis Garcia. Add the lesser deals for Zach Pop, Trevor Richards and Bryse Wilson, among others, and voila — $47 million right down the 2026 drain. For those keeping score at home, that’s more than 15% of the entire payroll.
Bad contracts
The real news of Dombrowski’s reckless and clueless spending is not confined to players who are no longer here. Aaron Nola has been one of the least effective starters in baseball for the past two seasons, and that’s not the worst part. He is under contract for another four seasons after this one, at $25 mill a year. For underachiever Trea Turner (92 K’s at the All-Star break), they have – ready for this? – another seven years at $27 mill a year. J.T. Realmuto, who looked even older than his 35 years before a recent surge, has two more years after this one, at $15 mill a year. Cohen didn’t compute the total, so I will. That’s over $300 million committed to players who have cleared the crest of the hill and are plunging downward. Ouch.
The Draft
What draft? Other than Justin Crawford, there has been zero help from the minor-league system. The five first-round picks under Dombrowski have been Gage Wood, Dante Nori and Aidan Miller, otherwise known as Who, Who and Who? The only other recognizable name among Dave’s first-round picks is Andrew Painter, who flamed out in his big-league debut this season and is now back at Triple A. Dombrowski has never been known for bringing in great young players – ask his most recent team, the Red Sox – but this is sub-par even for him.
The Bullpen
One of Dombrowski’s few savvy moves was acquiring Jhoan Duran at the trade deadline last season. The closer has been almost flawless in save situations (24 of 25) so far this season. The rest? Yawn. Brad Keller and Tanner Banks of the current bullpen, plus rentals David Robertson, Carlos Estevez and a bunch of long-gone stiffs round out the GM’s underwhelming work here.
Because he is fair-minded, Todd Cohen gave Dombrowski credit for the excellent trades for Brandon Marsh and Jesus Lazardo, and the GM’s best move, signing (and recently re-signing) Kyle Schwarber as a free agent.
Hey, even a blind squirrel stumbles upon an acorn from time to time, no?
Todd ends his rant with an intriguing point. He says: “If you were to look at Dombrowski’s entire tenure here as a GM without attaching his name, no owner in his right mind would keep him as the GM.”
He has a point, no? Dombrowski has enjoyed a top-five payroll the entire time he has been here, enabling him to keep signing big checks even when a majority of the new players have not been worthy of the investment. With the same resources, could a different GM have been able to do more?
Conversely, given the current $312-million payroll, is it possible any intelligent GM could have done less in the past 66 months?
And I will not allow people to forget the wasted four years under manager Rob Thomson, a robot who made his analytics-obsessed predecessor Joe Girardi look like a wild innovator. Maybe Dombrowski wouldn’t be facing this scrutiny if he had a manager smart enough to take one of the past four playoff teams all the way to a parade.
Girardi wasn’t that guy. Nor was Thomson. Is Don Mattingly, the interim boss right now? Given his career-long drought as a champion, probably not.
Now Dombrowski faces his latest test with the August 3 trade deadline approaching and many of the team’s biggest stars on the wrong side of 30. If he doesn’t get the job done this time, how many more chances does Dave Dombrowski deserve?
Todd Cohen says none.
Now that I have considered his argument, I agree.
I just wish I had seen it before now.
Philadelphia has been the center of the sports universe for the past few months. By all accounts, our city hosted brilliantly the PGA championship, the World Cup and the MLB All-Star festivities, including the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game.
Pretty awesome, wasn’t it?
Not really.
Before this glut of big sports events surrounding the 250th birthday of our country, I made the argument that fans don’t care much about hosting stuff like this because the most important thing to them (if not the only thing) is watching their own teams win.
I presented this theory after Jeff Lurie embarked on a study to determine the feasibility of a dome stadium for the Eagles. The longtime owner is more crazed than ever about hosting a Super Bowl here, even if the cost is literally billions of dollars.
What I witnessed over the past few months only served to reinforce my disdain for this quest.
Other than inflating the owner’s already outsized ego, what exactly would be in it for the fans? Nothing, really, unless you want to count the joy of watching your home city on TV or if you enjoy the auxiliary offerings surrounding the marquee events.
To me, the fan festivals are just a reminder that the average Joe or Joanna is excluded from attending the main events. Who saw firsthand the PGA Championship? Not the working guy, that’s for sure. Stepping onto the course for any of the four days cost attendees an average of $560 a day on the secondary market. (Face-value tickets were next to impossible to get.) Does anyone with a real job have $560 to stand at one hole and watch golf for seven or eight hours?
The price for World Cup events – am I the only one who noticed that Philly got some of the worst matchups? – were even more ridiculous. Those zealots rooting on their teams were tapping into their life savings to afford the $1,000-plus tab for two hours of soccer. No, thanks.
And the All-Star Game wasn’t much better. Those people in the stands on that hot summer night paid somewhere between $333 and $1,100 per seat, all to see their home National League squad score exactly zero runs. Hell, I haven’t cared about the All-Star Game in 30 years. Has anybody, really?
These big events are budget-busters for all but the richest and most famous of fans. Do you think billionaire Jay Z had to pay to get into the Linc for the Ivory Coast-Equador game? Unlikely. But the people you didn’t recognize sitting near the iconic rapper, oh, they paid. The rich get richer.
I have been a fan advocate for the past four decades in Philadelphia, and I maintain – more than ever – that Philly can live very comfortably without all of this glitter and glam. It’s not really our style anyway.
So, although no one else will ever admit it, I have two parting words for all of the big shots who came and went over the past few months in our awesome city.
Good riddance.
Some other thoughts. . . .
- By far my favorite moments during this period of big sports events in Philly were the boos liberally sprinkled throughout the two All-Star nights, and especially the ear-shattering reception for Mr. and Mrs. Met, two horrible mascots. People who think the fan base is kinder and gentler now need to take heed of what happened this week. The only thing that has gotten softer here is the way the media covers sports. The fans are as charmingly negative as ever. Bless them.
- Patti LaBelle caught a lot of flak for her rendition of the national anthem at the All-Star Game. I thought it did tribute to a tired old song made new with some of Patti’s vocal magic. And that last note? Who can hit it and hold it the way The Godmother of Soul did? The woman who nailed it is 82, OK? So shut up.
- Biggest name always wins – People who treasure draft picks like the Holy Grail should consider that the Flyers were willing to give up four future first-rounders for the chance to sign one player, center Leo Carlsson. In the end, the Ducks matched the offer, thereby confirming that one great player has more value than four so-called precious top picks. A bird in the hand, in other words, is worth four in the bush. Draft picks are extremely overrated.
- Listen closely. Are you enjoying the quiet? The best thing about this part of the summer is that Nick Sirianni vanishes from sight for a few enjoyable weeks. Soon he will be back at training camp, dispensing on a daily basis nothing of value to reporters still hanging on his every word. The Eagles coach hasn’t said anything interesting since he said building a team was a lot like tending a garden.
- You may have noticed I’m not sticking to my Monday schedule with these blog posts anymore. It just occurred to me that I should post something whenever I have something to say. Duh. The next time something happens that irritates me – or, less likely, impresses me – I will be offering my opinions here. Read them here at your convenience.