[Update: The Phillies officially announced the hiring on Friday, the day after this story was originally published.]
After dragging their feet for weeks on hiring new front office personnel, the Phillies are poised to hire one of the most successful executives in the game: Dave Dombrowski.
The Phillies are in the advanced stages of serious talks to hire Dombrowski, according to Jayson Stark.
The 64-year-old most recently served as the Boston Red Sox's president of baseball operations and brought the team a World Series in 2018 before he was fired the following season. Dombrowski recently signed on to help build a franchise in Nashville and was part of an ownership group looking to acquire a team for the city. Dombrowski said he was staying in Nashville and had no interest for job openings with the Angels, Mets and Phillies. Stark reports he had a change of heart:
But sources say that Phillies managing general partner John Middleton approached Dombrowski again this week, after two candidates – the Twins’ Thad Levine and the Dodgers’ Josh Byrnes – withdrew their names from consideration. This time, after a series of conversations with Middleton and Phillies president Andy MacPhail, Dombrowski decided the Phillies’ job was an attractive enough option to revisit.
From that point, according to a source who spoke with Dombrowski, the two sides began talking continuously over the next several days and were described, by Thursday afternoon, as having made significant progress toward a deal. Assuming that agreement doesn’t unravel at the last minute, the Phillies are about to hand the keys to their franchise to one of the most accomplished front-office figures of the last 30 years.
Dombrowski build World Series contenders with the Marlins, Tigers and Red Sox. No other executive has accomplished that.
