When the 2022 Red Sox season graciously got here to an in depth earlier this month, the group’s leaders sat at a podium and defined what they wanted to do subsequent.
The reply was apparent: signal Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers to long-term extensions. But it must be a deal that is sensible for either side, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom mentioned.
Then he pointed to J.D. Martinez, whose five-year, $110-million contract with the Red Sox was a type of uncommon contracts in baseball that works out completely. Martinez gained a World Series and was a top-10 hitter within the sport throughout these 5 years. He was paid handsomely to do it. Win-win.
Not two weeks later, the man who signed Martinez, Dave Dombrowski, was spraying champagne and celebrating in flip-flops as his Philadelphia Phillies superior by the Atlanta Braves to maneuver on to the National League Championship Series.
Dombrowski has made some stellar strikes since taking up the Phillies within the winter of 2020, a 12 months after he was fired from the Red Sox resulting from a distinction in opinion of the course the franchise wanted to take.
And because the Phillies battle it out with the Padres for a visit to the World Series, Dombrowski is reshaping his legacy and erasing the stigma that lengthy has adopted him.
No, he’s not simply the overall supervisor (or, as they’re identified in fashionable occasions, president of baseball operations) who trades prospects and spends cash to purchase championships.
He’s considered one of 5 GMs in historical past to be the architect of a World Series profitable workforce for 2 completely different franchises, and he may quickly have a 3rd on his resume.
This one is completely different.
Dombrowski inherited a Phillies workforce that spent a minimum of $140 million 5 occasions in 9 seasons however hadn’t made the playoffs in any of these years. The prospect pipeline was ranked twenty sixth and described by Baseball America as “one of MLB’s shallowest and worst farm systems.”
This wasn’t a basic Dombrowski turnaround job. This required extra tact.
When he joined the Red Sox in 2015, it was a a lot completely different state of affairs. The farm system was loaded. He needed to take care of the Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval contracts, however was additionally free to spend. It was a workforce that wanted an overhaul.
This Phillies workforce wanted a slight reboot. It wanted minor changes. It wanted cautious and nuanced change that might reshape the tradition.
Dombrowski did all that, renovating the entrance workplace, altering the minor league growth system and, this June, firing supervisor Joe Girardi after 22-29 begin and changing him with 59-year-old baseball lifer, Rob Thomson, who had by no means earlier than managed.
“That was the first time I really made a lot of changes to an organization in, I don’t know, years,” Dombrowski informed the Philadelphia Inquirer this week. “Maybe ever, really.”
He additionally rebuilt the roster in basic Dombrowski style, pushing the Phillies over the luxurious tax threshold for the primary time whereas signing Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, a pair of middle-of-the-order sluggers, to huge contracts. He fortified the bullpen with sneaky-good acquisitions in Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez. And on the commerce deadline, he landed David Robertson from the Cubs and Brandon Marsh and Noah Syndergaard from the Angels.
The Phillies are enjoying impressed baseball and so they’re doing it with a corporation that Dombrowski tore aside and rebuilt in a matter of two years.
In doing so, he could have perpetually modified his popularity.
This wasn’t like what he did in Boston, when he shipped out prospects and money so as to add top-end expertise that put them excessive in 2018. This was completely different. And it’s simple now to marvel if he would’ve performed the identical factor had John Henry stored him on the helm in 2019 and let Dombrowski re-sign Mookie Betts to push the Sox into the longer term.
The Nathan Eovaldi contract that after seemed suspicious ended up figuring out simply high quality. The Martinez contract was a superb one. Hiring Alex Cora because the supervisor turned out to be an excellent transfer. The Bogaerts contract was a steal. David Price was an overpay, however he gained them a World Series in 2018 a minimum of. The solely lingering stain is the Chris Sale contract, which has seemed horrible not due to poor efficiency, however due to Sale’s string of weird accidents which have stored him off the sphere.
What would Dombrowski had performed if he stayed in Boston? Re-sign Betts is the simple reply. And construct round him.
He constructed round Bryce Harper and Aaron Nola in Philly and it’s working splendidly.
”We completely love Dave, simply the way in which he acts and the way in which he’s round us,” Harper informed the Inquirer. “This is kind of his baby now. This is kind of his team that he’s put forward. He’s made moves with staff, minor league stuff. I think we’re kind of reaping the benefits of that right now.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com