Is It Finally Time to Rip Dave Dombrowski?
At a time when striking out is not nearly the embarrassment for hitters that it once was, I’m starting to believe the same holds true for general managers – most notably, Dave Dombrowski.
As he nears his fifth anniversary running the Phillies, Dombrowski has heard never a discouraging word, despite failing repeatedly to approach the recent success of the neighboring Eagles.
Yes, the Phils have made the playoffs in the last three seasons of the veteran GM’s tenure here, but his whiffs are getting more extreme, and much harder to ignore.
His most recent gaffe finally has the natives stirring, the insane decision to favor ex-Toronto closer Jordan Romano over the serviceable, and occasionally excellent, Jeff Hoffmann in the free-agent market last winter. Romano proved on Saturday afternoon that no lead is safe in his meatball world.
Up 11-4, Romano gave up six runs and had to be removed in the ninth inning before he had completed the demolition. Jordan Romano, for want of a better word, stinks. There’s a reason the Blue Jays showed no interest – zero – in re-signing him after an injury-riddled and abysmal 2024.
Hey, no GM gets every move right. Even Howie Roseman swings and misses once in a while (see: Bryce Huff). But the real story is eluding most of our increasingly docile local sports media. Dombrowski may be as far past his prime as Andy (“If we don’t, we don’t”) MacPhail.
Look at this way: Since when does any GM, in any city, escape criticism after he blows nearly half a billion dollars on two of the worst contracts in baseball?
In Philadelphia, the notion is absurd. We hold people accountable here. Or do we anymore? When is the last time you heard a word of dissent about Dombrowski?
In the media, the answer is never.
Well, consider this: Trea Turner and Aaron Nola are on the books, right now, for a combined 16 seasons – 16! – at an overall cost of $471 million.
Turner is so mentally fragile, he needed an undeserved standing ovation of support in his first season here to raise his overall stats to mediocrity, a standard he has maintained for more than two seasons now.
Is he a $300-million player?
Not a chance.
And then there’s Nola, a home-grown pitcher who is sometimes very good and sometimes atrocious. This season, so far, he has been only the latter, with an 0-4 record and a 6.65 earned run average. His career ERA is 3.74, which is good but far from elite.
Is Nola worth the seven-year, $171-million contract extension Dombrowski just gave him?
Not a chance.
The fact is, Dombrowski has been profiting from the moves made by his much-maligned predecessors, MacPhail and Matt Klentak, who hit home runs with their long-term deals for Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler, among many egregious mistakes (Mickey Moniak, Odubel Herrera, Scott Kingery, Gabe Kapler.)
Dombrowski has a handful of equally regrettable moves, but no successes that approach Harper and Wheeler. He did bring in Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and Jesus Luzardo, but none of those players approach the positive impact of Harper and Wheeler.
The GM’s biggest blind spots appear to be the bullpen and manager, both of which are weaker now than when he took over in 2020. Jose Alvarado still throws 100 mph, but he is a closer at the mercy of his sporadic control. The fact that, among the rest, the erratic Orion Kerkering is the most trusted arm says a lot about the lack of depth in the relief corps.
And this shortfall is enhanced by the robotic decisions of Rob Thomson, who treats pitch counts like death sentences. It would take a call from the governor to get the manager to keep even a great starter like Wheeler in the game after 100 pitches (see: game one of the playoffs last season).
It should be no secret that, even in the changing environment of sports in Philadelphia, we still measure all teams against the most popular team, the Eagles, and that we ultimately accept nothing less than championships.
In that regard, Dombrowski is failing. We know he can do it, since he won World Series both in Florida and Boston – though both cities would tell you that he mortgaged most of the immediate future to make it to the parade.
But can he do it now?
Here, he got to the doorstep once, when the Phils went on a run and made it as far as Game 6 of the 2022 October Classic before losing to Houston. Since then, the team has bowed out one step earlier each season – not an encouraging direction when your GM is 15 months away from reaching his 70thbirthday.
None of this is to suggest that Dombrowski is inept like Klentak or, even worse, Sixers GM Daryl Morey, but it does open a conversation – I hope – about whether the Phillies key roster-builder can still make good on the only reason he came here, which is to win a championship.
It’s time to do what we do best in Philadelphia, and that’s to hold the people in charge of our sports teams accountable when they screw up. Dombrowski blew it – badly – when he signed those terrible deals with Turner and Nola, and he whiffed again when he brought in a stiff named Jordan Romano as a high-leverage reliever.
If you watched Romano’s meltdown on Saturday and still consider Dave Dombrowski a genius, congratulations. You are truly a devoted and proud Phillies fan.
And you are also delusional.