Philadelphia Phillies: So what exactly is Dave Dombrowski evaluating?

When Dave Dombrowski first left Nashville to become the Philadelphia Phillies newest president of baseball operations, there was a sense around the organization that he’d be attacking 2021 from an “evaluation year” point of view. As frustrating as that notion was (and still is) to success-hungry Philly fans who’ve been starved of a winning team since 2011, the logic checked out on paper.

Dombrowski joined the Phillies relatively late this past winter, was strapped for cash due to some bad contracts that his predecessor (Matt Klentak) shelled out, and was put in an awkward position with free agents J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius when it came to their future with the ball club. While the Realmuto negotiations actually ended up turning out quite favorably for Dombrowski and the Phillies, the last ditch effort to bring back Gregorius ended up less than ideal.

Didi was able to demand $28 million over two years due to a shriveled up shortstop market, a contract that isn’t looking all that great considering the infielder’s slow start to the season, followed by a mysterious elbow injury that’s kept him out for over a month.

With all that said, I didn’t personally hate the idea of Dombrowski taking a full season to really evaluate and assess the state of the Phillies. As upsetting as it was to concede wasting away yet another year of Bryce Harper’s prime, the Phillies were (are) in such a bad state following the Klentak disaster that it would be downright foolish to expect Dombrowski to be able to fix it all in a few months time.

Experimenting with some of the younger pieces, figuring out the bullpen hierarchy, and ultimately deciding what the future looks like for veterans like Rhys Hoskins, Zach Eflin, and Jean Segura would give Dombrowski a clearer picture as to what needs to be done in 2022, when he should have far more cash to play with.

It all sounded logical on paper, until the Phillies didn’t really follow the plan. Like, at all…?

Instead of evaluating new pieces, the Philadelphia Phillies continue to lean on the same players from years past.

Just this past Wednesday, in a game that the Phillies lost 13-12 to the Washington Nationals, they saw a combined nine earned runs allowed by the trio of Vince Velasquez, David Hale, and Hector Neris. None of these players are young or developing, and all three of them directly contributed to the team missing out on the postseason in 2020.

With Neris and Velasquez, you can point to them not necessarily “helping” the Phillies playoff odds dating all the way back to 2018.

Dombrowski and Joe Girardi entered 2021 with the goal of evaluating and assessing their talent. Sure, they would still like to make the postseason if they could, but I think we’re all in agreement that this current version of the Philadelphia Phillies would stand no chance against the likes of the Dodgers or the Padres in a playoff series.

However, the really odd (and annoying) part to all of this is that we’re now 71 games into the season, and all we’ve established is that the players who weren’t good enough in 2018, 2019, and 2020, still aren’t good enough.

Velasquez shouldn’t be in the rotation, Neris needs to be replaced at closer, Andrew McCutchen is regressing, Odubel Herrera has been solid – but still not a longterm answer in CF on his current salary, Rhys Hoskins remains unbelievably streaky, Zach Eflin has still yet to take that next step forward in his development (4.39 ERA), David Hale shouldn’t be on the roster, Enyel De Los Santos shouldn’t be seeing major league action.

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I think you get the point.

If the Philadelphia Phillies were 34-37, but had really experimented and pushed the limits with some of their younger players, or even just additional external free agents, then I’d be feeling a lot better about the direction of the organization moving forward. Spencer Howard, for example, is the team’s top young pitcher, and yet we continue to see him babied on the mound under some false sense of “we’re trying to win now.”

Would it not be wiser to let him sink or swim as a starter? To see if he can be apart of the rotation in 2022?

The team has started to provide opportunity to some younger players like Luke Williams, Ranger Suarez, and Matt Vierling, but they’re still ultimately differing to the veterans when it comes to everyday roles or high-leverage situations.

Sooner than later, Dombrowski and Girardi are going to have to come to the conclusion that new faces need to see the field more consistently, because the current strategy of losing games due to Velasquez/Hale/Neris isn’t working – and it’s honestly completely pointless.