Phil’s content is ‘exploring’ the industry without making a large sensation
Dave Dombrowski sat in the Phillies’ suite at the Opryland Hotel on Monday afternoon, chatting about what the team is doing during the Winter Meetings.
Philly does not expect to leave town as the talk of baseball on Wednesday.
“Right now, I would say we’re exploring,” Dombrowski explained. “We came in here trying to be open-minded to whatever happens to make our ballclub better, more around the edges… so that’s how we’re out there pursuing anything.” We’ll have an open mind about anyone.”
According to reports, this does not imply that Juan Soto or Josh Hader are in the works. The Phillies believe they already have enough star power to win a World Series, so emptying the farm system for a one-year rental or blowing beyond the luxury tax for a closer (or doing something similarly large) is improbable, but never say never with Dombrowski in charge.
“I would anticipate that we’re going to sign a bullpen guy,” Dombrowski said. “I would think somewhere in the winter, we have a chance to do that. Or a trade. It’s probably going to come after more of them come off the list. They’re in a position where they’re willing to say, ‘OK, we’ll take a one-year deal for X amount of dollars.’ So that’s what we’re doing at this point.
We’re just talking to people. You just never know when you’re together in a group like this. Not only from a club perspective but from an agent perspective. We have not been in here in a situation where we’re putting our heads together yet and saying, ‘Hey what about this trade? What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ I didn’t anticipate that we would the first day. We’ll see what happens the next couple of days.”
The Phillies are considering more outfield depth with uncertainty surrounding Johan Rojas in center field and Brandon Marsh having not yet established himself as an everyday player. Again, that does not mean Soto. Think more along the lines of Adam Duvall, Kiké Hernández, Michael A. Taylor or Whit Merrifield, among others.
“We’re content there, but does something we see makes us better right now?” Dombrowski said. “OK, boom. We just go ahead and we jump on that.”
But those pieces typically fall later, after the big players start coming off the board. And right now Shohei Ohtani, Soto and the rest are still out there.
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