Dave Dombrowski hired by Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies have announced the hiring of Dave Dombrowski as the team’s president of baseball operations today.

Even though Dombrowski has been around for decades, he is still just 64 years old. He became general manager for the Montreal Expos in July, 1988, then took over the Florida Marlins in 1991.

After leaving the Marlins in 2001, he was wooed by both the Detroit Tigers and the Texas Rangers. Tom Hicks ended up hiring John Hart instead of Dombrowski, and Dombrowski joined the Tigers, where he was in charge from 2002 until August, 2015, when the Tigers released him from his contract and replaced him with Al Avila.

Dombrowski joined the Boston Red Sox two weeks later as president of baseball operations, and was in charge in Boston until he was fired in September, 2019.

The Phillies have been looking for a new baseball exec since firing general manager Matt Klentak at the beginning of October. While the Phillies cast a wide net, reports indicate they have struggled to find a replacement for Klentak, with several candidates declining interviews or removing themselves from consideration after interviewing.

Dombrowski is a well known name, but his departure from Boston was reportedly due in large part with his unwillingness or inability to adapt his management style to the structure of a modern front office — despite the depth of individuals and information available to him, Dombrowski, per reports, preferred to make decisions based on the input of a small coterie of advisors.

From afar, this seems like it may simply be a placeholder hire, a matter of bringing in Dombrowski to steer the ship for the time being while ultimately providing feedback and helping the organization make a decision at some point in 2021 what they need to do on a longer-term basis.