Dave Dombrowski has become a beloved figure in Philadelphia for building the Phillies back up to a perennial contender.
The Phillies are looking to return to the World Series for the second straight year after missing the playoffs in the previous 10 seasons. But there was a time when Dombrowski wanted to get back into expansion, not helping to build a championship club.
Phillies owner John Middleton joined Rob Bradford on the Audacy original podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” and revealed how he and the rest of the front office convinced Dombrowski to become the Phillies President of Baseball Operations.
“The interview wasn’t really an interview. It was more like I had to convince Dave why he should be here instead of what he was trying to do in Nashville,” Middleton said (13:43 in player above). “I wasn’t really interviewing him. I was just trying to persuade him.”
Dombrowski was fired by the Boston Red Sox late in the 2019 season, just 10 months after winning the World Series. He then joined a group down in Tennessee to be a consultant and advisor for the Nashville Stars ownership group as they wanted to bring expansion to the Music City.
There were multiple reports that the Mets and other teams had interest in Dombrowski, but he held strong.
“He kept telling everybody that offseason that he was not interested,” Middleton said.
Middleton knew of Dombrowski due to his connections with Andy MacPhail and Pat Gillick in the Phillies front office. MacPhail helped give the Phillies an inside track to Dombrowski.
“Andy and I, as we talked about who we would interview to replace Matt, Andy started out every conversation ‘Well, there’s David, and then there’s everybody else,” Middleton said. “I said to Andy at the beginning ‘Your job is to get David into an interview.’”
MacPhail called Dombrowski multiple times to no avail. Dombrowski told MacPhail no, but Middleton needed to hear it himself.
“I want to hear Dave tell me no,” he said. “I said ‘No offense to you, I wanted him to tell me to my face or at least over the phone.’”
Middleton talked to Dombrowski about the lackluster expansion prospects for Nashville given the state of the league. He then offered Dombrowski an out in case things didn’t go to plan.
“I said ‘I’ll make it easy for you,’” Middleton continued. “I said ‘If you take our job I’ll put in the contract you can walk away any time you want and go back to Nashville.’ I said ‘If I’m wrong, you’re excused.’”
Of course, Dombrowski didn’t end up needing that clause and has found a true home in Philadelphia.
Middleton had a chuckle recalling the months leading up to Dombrowski joining the organization. As the Phillies were searching for new leadership in the front office, fans and media were growing restless.
“If you go back to that October, November time period. It wasn’t until early December that Dave and I really started getting to a point where we had a deal, and it came together quickly, it was like 24 or 36 hours,” he said. “It was interesting because I was getting bashed by a lot of reporters because I wasn’t communicating.
“I said to them ‘There are a bunch of people out here looking for a GM, why would I tell you who I am looking at, who I’m interviewing?’ They said ‘Well, your fans want to know!’ I said ‘My competitors want to know! If you tell my fans, my competitors are going to know. Why is that an intelligent strategy?”
MacPhail’s connection to Dombrowski opened the door and Middleton brought him to Philadelphia.
“Dave kept saying publicly ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to talk to anybody.’ I thought I had an inside track with Andy, and I did. I wasn’t going to tell people.”
Now, three years later, the Phillies are on the cusp of another World Series appearance and this could finally be the season Dombrowski gets his third championship.
“As high as my expectations were,” Middleton said, “he’s exceeded them.”