New President of Baseball Operations of Phillies is Dave Dombrowski

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Today it was confirmed by Jon Heyman of MLB Network that Dave Dombrowski was hired to be President of Baseball Operations for the Philadelphia Phillies. This hiring was a bit of a surprise to the baseball world, as Dombrowski had been strongly rumored to have other plans.

Dombrowski, who most recently served in the same role for the Boston Red Sox until 2019, was believed to become a part of the ownership group and executives to launch an MLB organization in Nashville, Tennessee. Rumors swirled that an ownership group had formed and that Nashville would be the next, or one of the next, cities to host an MLB franchise. Dombrowski agreeing to an executive role with the Phillies might cast doubt that Nashville is close to adding an MLB team. But Dombrowski may not have been as closely tied to the potential new ownership group as initially speculated.

The new executive’s past includes climbing the ladder to Assistant General Manager of the White Sox, then jumping from Farm Director to Assistant GM to General Manager of the Montreal Expos in a 3-year span. He then GM’d the Expos for three years until 1991 when he left for the Florida Marlins. The Marlins were an expansion team and Dombrowski helped build them into the 1997 World Series Champions, which lended creedence to the idea that he would be fit to do the same in Nashville.

He then became President of Baseball Operations and CEO of the Detroit Tigers in 2002, which lasted 14 seasons. The Tigers lost two World Series in Dombrowski’s time there (2006 & 2012). In 2016, he then went to Boston as President of Baseball Operations and won the 2018 championship a few seasons later.

Although the move to the Phillies comes as a surprise, Dobrowski does not lack any experience in the field. His history of spending makes Phillies fans hopeful that J.T. Realmuto will re-sign and the Phillies will attempt to contend. Time will tell what is truly the case.