Aug 7, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Brandon Marsh (16), Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Johan Rojas (18) and Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos (9) celebrate after the final out of the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke for approximately 45 minutes Tuesday in his season-ending press conference at Citizens Bank Park.
At On Pattison, we've written extensively in recent days about what was said by Dombrowski. But after a disappointing postseason exit, there was almost too much information to process. So to put a bow on things, here are four items that might have slipped through the cracks.
Dombrowski talked like he expects Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott to be part of the 2025 Phillies. But he also said this.
"We have to be open minded to exploring what's out there for us, talk to some clubs and see whats happening," Dombrowski said. "That process hasn't started, sometimes you trade good players for good players."
As the general manager of the Montreal Expos in 1989, Dombrowski traded future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson to the Seattle Mariners to acquire All-Star lefty Mark Langston.
When he was the general manager of the Detroit Tigers in November of 2013, Dombrowski traded slugging first baseman Price Fielder to the Texas Rangers for star second baseman Ian Kinsler.
So Dombrowski has a history of trading talent-for-talent.
From a lineup perspective, Bryce Harper and Trea Turner aren't going anywhere. The same is probably true for Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. Some have speculated that Nick Castellanos could be a trade piece, but he's still due $40 million over the next two seasons, so the Phillies would probably have to eat some money to facilitate a trade. If that's the case, Castellanos may just be more valuable to the Phillies than he would be via trade.
Bohm, Marsh and Stott all have multiple remaining years of team control. Bohm will be a free agent after 2026. Marsh and Stott will be after 2027. They're all still young, but not that young. Bohm is 28, Stott is 27 and Marsh will turn 27 in December.
If the Phillies hope to make contact on a more consistent basis in 2025, Bohm and Stott would seem to be two pieces you would want to keep. Marsh is a tremendous outfielder who has pop, but also struck out in 32.4% of his at-bats this past season. Perhaps Marsh doesn't fit what the Phillies need from their secondary players and will be swapped out for someone who does.
Brandon Marsh May Not Fit What Phillies Need From Secondary Lineup Pieces - @OnPattison https://t.co/Tz8bgULMMe
On multiple occasions in 2023, both Bryce Harper and his agent, Scott Boras, publicly hinted at a desire to extend his contract beyond the 2031 season, his age-38 campaign. Managing partner John Middleton talked about wanting Harper to finish his career in Philadelphia. Harper has repeatedly expressed that he plans to play into his 40s, and only wants to do so for the Phillies.
So where do things stand?
"Really when it comes, as I've said all along, contract negotiations, I always keep private," Dombrowski said when asked about Harper. "I don't think there's anything to be gained by sharing any type of contract discussions, yes or no."
Dombrowski seemed to try to let Harper down easily in February, while adding that he has "the utmost respect for Harper."
“He’s in a situation where you can always desire or want, anybody can, anything that they would like,” Dombrowski told Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie on SportsRadio 94 WIP. “We end up making business decisions that sometimes are difficult.
“One way I would just say it, without getting into any particulars, is that we’re thrilled that he’s on board. We know that he’s a Phillie for eight more years. And there’s a lot of time to digest things. But it’s a situation where we are thrilled that he’s on board. Again, you can desire and want anything you like, but I think it’s also apparent that knowing Bryce that when he gets to Spring Training under any circumstances, he’s ready to go and you know you’re going to get 100% from him in every regard.”
Bryce Harper hit his 300th career home run today. He says he has bigger numbers in mind. Could that mean 600? pic.twitter.com/9rg2gLc9ZI
Harper turned 32 this week. For as great as he is, he broke into the league when he was 19 and has dealt with some injuries throughout the course of his career. Dombrowski, 68, will likely not be in his current post when a new Harper extension would kick in. Still, he probably doesn't want to be blamed for giving Harper an extension with seven remaining years on his deal that turns out to be an albatross if the two-time NL MVP's body breaks down late in his 30s. So it may make sense from the Phillies perspective to not do anything until Harper publicly forces them to do so. And it's unclear if he will.
Elsewhere, Dombrowski was asked about a possible extension for Ranger Suárez, who can become a free agent after the 2025 season.
"Well, we like Ranger a lot, and understandably so," Dombrowski said. "And we like the Ranger of the first half of the season better than the Ranger of the second half. There was a lot that was involved in that from his own perspective. But he's a good pitcher, and we're very open-minded to having Ranger in the organization for a long time."
If Suárez puts together a full campaign next year anything close to what he did in the first half, he'll be looking at a contract in excess of $125 million. But he's never made more than 29 starts in a season, so there have to be some concerns about his durability. All parties involved might be best served to let Suárez's contract year play out.
Finally, On Pattison asked about whether the Phillies would like to extend Schwarber beyond his contract year of 2025.
"Well, we like Kyle Schwarber a lot," Dombrowski said. "But we haven't gotten into any type of offseason projections on who we're going to sign or not sign at this point."
Schwarber has 131 home runs in three years with the Phillies, and is the defacto captain. Is there any question that in a year the Phillies will want to retain the 31-year-old?
It was a frustrating 2024 season from Rojas, who continues to flash excellent athleticism, but didn't turn that into being an MLB-caliber player on a consistent enough basis.
Rojas' glove is his meal ticket. After he returned from an option to Triple-A Lehigh Valley in late June, Rojas looked the part much more in the field. Still, the two major metrics were a bit divided on Rojas' performance in center field, at least relative to what he did a year ago when he looked like a future Platinum Glove winner.
Rojas across 392 innings in 2023: 15 defensive runs saved, six outs above average
Rojas across 903 1/3 innings in 2024: four defensive runs saved, eight outs above average
As Dombrowski noted earlier this week, there aren't any perfect defensive metrics. Overall, most still feel really positive about Rojas as a defender.
But he needs to give more offensively than he did in 2024, when he hit .243 with just a .601 OPS. He rarely hit for power (three home runs), and also didn't draw many walks (13). It's great to be a weapon once you get on base, but Rojas posted just a .279 on-base percentage. He was also picked off on multiple occasions. He delivered, at best, mixed results when trying to bunt.
"We like Rojas, but we need offensive improvement there from him," Dombrowski admitted.
"He's gonna live in Clearwater," Dombrowski revealed. "We have a plan from an offensive perspective. He reduced his chase rate. He's still an outstanding defensive center fielder. He can run.
"But I can't say he's for sure going to be our center fielder."
How will the 2025 Phillies be different than the 2024 iteration? Well, No. 1 prospect Andrew Painter — who missed all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery — will be back in the picture.
In fact, Painter returned to the mound in game action for the first time since his elbow surgery last weekend in the Arizona Fall League. He had mixed results over two innings, as noted by Grace Del Pizzo of Phillies Nation, giving up three hits and two runs over two innings. But he touched 100 mph and came out of the appearance healthy. The Phillies think it was successful overall.
"The rust is just coming off," Dombrowski said of Painter. "It's like the other day he was throwing great. He gave up two runs, which is very unusual for him. He doesn't usually ever even give up two runs.
"But he'll get better and better and better as he goes out there, so the rust will come off," Dombrowski continued. "But the main thing we want to make sure is that he's healthy, he knows he's healthy, he's ready to go into Spring Training."
After his first Arizona Fall League start, Andrew Painter spoke about his goals for this experience. (via @GraceDelPizzo) pic.twitter.com/q9tuPpuN8e
The Phillies are still formulating a plan for how exactly how they will manage the workload of Painter in 2025. They have three pitchers in Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sánchez who all logged more than 181 innings this past season. Painter isn't going to have that type of workload in his first year back from Tommy John surgery.
Painter has never pitched at the Triple-A level. He seemed poised to bypass it and make the team out of Spring Training as a 19-year-old in 2023 before suffering his elbow injury. The Phillies could have Painter open the 2024 season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The Pirates did that with Paul Skenes, who went on to pitch 133 innings for the Buccos likely en route to the NL Rookie of the Year. But there are some key differences between Painter and Skenes' situation.
"Pittsburgh, I read what they did with Skenes," Dombrowski said. "He talked about how happy he was with his situation. He started in the minors. But he wasn't coming off of an injury either."
Not only was Skenes not coming off an injury, but the Pirates were out of things in September. Skenes pitched two hitless innings at Yankee Stadium in his final outing of the season, dazzling a lineup that might produce a World Series title in the coming weeks. But he came out of the game after that because the season was over, and the Pirates were managing his workload. Such a scenario wouldn't go over well in Philadelphia next September, let alone October.
