PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski is trying something new in the front office.
For decades, the Phillies haven’t been successful at consistently developing young talent in their minor league system. It’s been one of their greatest flaws in recent history as they tried to rebuild the organization, following the golden years of Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.
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The Matt Klentak-Andy MacPhail regime made multiple high draft picks between 2016 and 2018 that haven’t improved as fans hoped.
Now with Dombrowski running the show, change is underway.
Dombrowski announced a number of front office changes on Tuesday. Most notably, Josh Bonifay will no longer be the director of player development, a position he’s held since October 2018. Instead, Dombrowski will search for someone else, though he offered Bonifay a professional scouting position for 2022.
Dombrowski also reassigned assistant general managers Bryan Minniti and Scott Proefrock as consultants for next season.
“For me, it was just a situation I think that the structure didn’t fit quite like I would like,” Dombrowski said on the Phillies Radio Network. “It was a position where I thought it was time to make changes.”
Dombrowski has been with the organization for almost a year, so he’s taken time to evaluate the makeup of the front office. He felt too many departments — three, in particular — were reporting to one person, Minniti. He believes it’s best to start fresh in player development, which has been a flaw for a long time.
Going forward, Dombrowski would like it to operate with individuals who share the philosophy of “somebody that can bring you all the traditional teaching on-field knowledge and also believes in all the contemporary information that can be brought into from today’s world.”
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Klentak, who was general manager from 2016 to 2020 — before Dombrowski stepped into his role — was labeled as a new-school type who relied heavily on numbers and analytics. Managing partner John Middleton put an emphasis on building the Phillies research and development department. But once Middleton moved on from Klentak and hired Dombrowski, he’s been preaching a more balanced approach to developing young players.
Will Dombrowksi’s hires work? Who knows. Is it surprising a change was made? Not in the slightest.