By Cory Nidoh
It has been a newsworthy offseason for the Phillies. From Bryce Harper being unhappy with comments made by President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski in the late fall to the lack of splashy moves the team made to the chagrin of the fan base, there has been plenty to talk about when it comes to the 2026 Phillies.
Dombrowski touched on multiple topics Wednesday morning, including his recent sit-down with Harper, if offseason moves were dictated by the looming lockout, Aidan Miller and his thoughts on the 2026 team on the Morning Show on 94.1 WIP.
The Harper situation
It has been well documented that the slugging first baseman was not keen on the comments Dombrowski made about his play at the end of last season.
“For me, it’s kind of wild the whole situation happening,” Harper told the media in Clearwater last Sunday. “I think the big thing for me is when we first met with this organization, it was, we are always going to keep things in-house. So when that didn’t happen, it kind of took me for a run a little bit.”
Dombrowski was asked by host Joe DeCamera about the meeting he, Rob Thomson and Harper recently had and remained tight-lipped on what exactly was discussed.
“I would tell you first of all what was said behind closed doors, I always keep behind closed doors. We had a very good, open conversation with Bryce. Rob was there. We addressed a lot of that back in October and November,” Dombrowski said.
“But I wanted to have an open conversation, express our feelings and move forward. We were able to do that. I listened to him, he listened to me. I think it’s always important in any walk of life, not just this, that communication is important. This isn’t the first time I’ve ever had a situation where a player is not happy with the organization in which I’m responsible, so you sit down and talk about it.”
Offseason dictated by looming lockout
With the uncertainty of a 2027 season being played or, at the very least, starting on time, Dombrowski said that the offseason moves that were made were not impacted by the murky future of the sport beyond this season.
“The reality is how we approached it was let’s just try to win this year and see where this thing takes us. In John’s (Middleton) case, he said let’s go forward and operate. Who knows what will happen? We have a good club, we are trying to win a championship.”
This is not the first time Dombrowski has dealt with a work stoppage in his career.
In 1990, Dombrowski was the general manager of the Montreal Expos during a lockout when MLB owners tried for the first time to place a salary cap on the players. A few years later, as the general manager of the Florida Marlins, the 1994-1995 strike occurred. It marked the first time in nine decades that there would be no World Series after the players went on strike due to another attempt on adding a salary cap.
Most recently, the 2021-22 lockout delayed Opening Day in Dombrowski’s first year with the Phillies.
“I’m one of the few people in some ways, which is unfortunate because of age, I have been through this in my career,” Dombrowski said on the potential lockout.
“You don’t ever know what’s going to happen. When you think about it, not sure how you implement everything for the 2027 season, whatever they decide upon.”
Was there a Plan B after Bichette?
A big point of contention amongst the fan base is that the Phillies are running back the same team that have struggled in the postseason in each of the last three seasons since making the World Series in 2022.
The starting lineup looks essentially the same aside from the additions of Adolis Garcia and rookie Justin Crawford, who is being given the chance to be the starting centerfielder.
Back in late January, it appeared the Phillies were prepared to make a huge splash with a surprising agreement with Bo Bichette. However, in the 11th hour, Bichette shifted gears and opted to sign with the division rival Mets.
The Phillies immediately re-signed J.T. Realmuto after it was apparent he would not be part of the team if they landed the deal with Bichette.
Dombrowski, who was pressed on what, if any, backup plan there was to pivot to after missing out on Bichette and running back the same team, said:
“You don’t know that there weren’t other paths that weren’t discussed,” he said to DeCamera.
“This one became public. We had numerous conversations in the wintertime. But I think you have to be careful in my spot where you say we are going to make a change to make a change unless you think it’s the right thing to do.”
Expressing his elation that the team was able to re-sign the NL MVP runner-up in Kyle Schwarber, Dombrowski posed a question to the show and listeners.
“I would not have been happy walking out of the Winter Meetings without signing Kyle Schwarber. I don’t know where we would have gone in the wintertime. He’s one of the best hitters in the league. If we decided not to run it back and not bring Kyle Schwarber back, would people be happy?”
Dombrowski also used a similar analogy regarding the re-signing of J.T. Realmuto.
“We had the best free agent catcher available. We ended up bringing him back. Would you be happier if we brought in a lesser player back just to make a change?”
Aidan Miller
There is understandably a lot of excitement surrounding the organization’s top prospect and the possibility that Miller could potentially join Crawford and Andrew Painter to form a youthful trio that could potentially reignite an older lineup.
Miller, who is currently dealing with a sore back and has no timetable to return, has a chance to make the big league roster without an injury or an expected starter not being traded. Dombrowski did not shut the notion down.
“Could he? Yes. The way I would describe it is part of it is A, he is so talented,” Dombrowski said.
He added, “He can play different positions. That gives him the opportunity. He can play short once in a while, he can play third once in a while, he can play second once in a while. He even told us remember I played in the outfield as a youngster, I can play there, too. But you have to make sure he gets enough at-bats. So we have to sit down ourselves and say how many at-bats he will get in this role, playing all over the place without injury, or is he better off playing in Triple-A?
Could he do it? Yes. Will he do it? I don’t really know. We’d have to look and say we are a better team on our ball club versus having him go out and play in Triple-A.”