Dave Dombrowski seems like the antithesis of the thinking man’s general manager. That isn’t to say that Dombrowski is not viewed highly by people in MLB, obviously he keeps landing good jobs as an executive, but he is rarely held up on a pedestal despite his resume indicating that he is one of the best modern executives in the history of baseball.
Not only has he won two World Series with two different teams, something only a small handful of executives can ever claim, he has managed to take four different teams to the World Series, and has a very real shot of winning a third World Series with a different team if the Phillies win this year. No other baseball executive in history can claim such success with different franchises, he’s even done it in different leagues, taking two AL franchises and two NL franchises to the World Series.
Dombrowski has done it with different ownership groups, with different managers, with different players, and over vastly different periods of time, as the game and player evaluation has evolved in various ways. He has managed to stay ahead of the curve in a lot of regards, and consistently identifies good players to target and acquire that turn into winning baseball games.
Dombrowski doesn’t seem to be recognized for these achievements at the rate almost anyone else would. Instead it seems to be assumed that of course Dombrowski was successful with teams–his strategy is to merely trade away prospects for proven MLB players, and to spend big in free agency. He then quickly leaves or gets fired, saddling the team he leaves with overpaid fading stars and no prospects in the farm system. Dombrowski operates over the short-term and it’s believed that many executives would be capable of similar success if they were given that kind of backing from ownership to go for it.
In a baseball world that idolizes Billy Beane and Andrew Friedman, guys who made the most of limited resources and continued to find ways to win on the margins to remain competitive, Dombrowski feels like a brute. He’s the hare racing against the tortoise–sprinting ahead of everyone without any thought of sustainability, only to be caught in the end by the cerebral executives who truly understand how to build a proper baseball franchise.
In fact, one could argue that Dombrowski’s achievements with multiple franchises is only made possible because his methods are so unsustainable. He can’t stick around with the same franchise and be successful, because all of his teams need a hard reset after a few years. So Dombrowski moves on and finds the next ambitious owner who is looking to win now.
The brilliance of Dombrowski though is that many teams try to “win now” and make aggressive moves and trades, driving the payroll up in the hopes of grabbing some momentary relevance. None of them are as successful as Dombrowski, who over time has consistently shown the ability to assemble a major league roster and coaching staff that is capable of getting the job done in October. The Marlins asked him to assemble a winner in 1997 and he did just that. Ownership immediately balked at paying the bill the next year and orchestrated a fire sale. Dombrowski would actually be responsible for acquiring a huge part of the 2003 Marlins team (including Mike Lowell, Miguel Cabrera, Derek Lee, Josh Beckett and Brad Penny).
He went to Detroit and actually didn’t jump right in with a winner. Instead his teams lost a lot, and he slowly rebuilt the team for a few seasons. But by 2006 they were one of the most formidable teams in the AL, advancing to the World Series a year after losing 91 games. Despite claims that Dombrowski could never build something sustainable, he would be in Detroit for 14 years, making the World Series twice and at one point making three straight ALCS appearances.
Then he was on to Boston. We all know what happened there. He took a listless team that had finished last in back-to-back years and got them into the playoffs his first year in charge. He signed Craig Kimbrel, he signed David Price. He traded for Chris Sale and signed JD Martinez. He hired Alex Cora as manager. After back-to-back 90+ win seasons his first two years, he had an 108-win juggernaut, the best team in Red Sox history, that demolished opponents on his way to the World Series.
He was fired ten months later–not unlike in his first stint with the Marlins, ownership was balking at the high cost of doing business with Dombrowski and a rebuild was deemed necessary.
He landed on his feet of course, going to Philadelphia, making trades and signing free agents and again correctly identifying the right players to succeed. They made the World Series last year and look poised to do it again this year.
Yet, it still feels like people view Dombrowski as a bit of a carnival trick. A guy who rashly trades away top prospects and spends recklessly, providing brief windows of contention followed by years of needed rebuild. People may remember the winning, but they certainly talked for years later about the Miguel Cabrera contract, or the Chris Sale contract.
However, Dombrowski probably deserves a lot more credit in terms of sustainability. The Marlins should have been competitive for longer if not for a rash fire sale, and after a few years Dombrowski had adequately restocked the team with young talent that would go on to win another World Series (only to be quickly sold off again). Detroit had a ten-year window of contention. When he left Boston, yes there was the Price contract and the Sale contract, but there was still a strong young core of talent, and the team’s subsequent underachievement is hard to be pinned on Dombrowski.
Perhaps more important than all of that, Dombrowski’s teams are fun. Squads full of big name players, sluggers that hit mammoth home runs and pitchers that struck tons of guys out. The kind of teams that get young kids invested in the team, and provide lifelong memories for fanbases desperate to see a winner. Yes, there is the inevitable rebuild, but if you brought Dombrowski in, you got a high-quality team that was a blast to watch and were almost guaranteed you would be playing deep into October. If you want to win, if you really, really want to win, your best bet is to hire Dave Dombrowski.
Not only has he won two World Series with two different teams, something only a small handful of executives can ever claim, he has managed to take four different teams to the World Series, and has a very real shot of winning a third World Series with a different team if the Phillies win this year. No other baseball executive in history can claim such success with different franchises, he’s even done it in different leagues, taking two AL franchises and two NL franchises to the World Series.
Dombrowski has done it with different ownership groups, with different managers, with different players, and over vastly different periods of time, as the game and player evaluation has evolved in various ways. He has managed to stay ahead of the curve in a lot of regards, and consistently identifies good players to target and acquire that turn into winning baseball games.
Dombrowski doesn’t seem to be recognized for these achievements at the rate almost anyone else would. Instead it seems to be assumed that of course Dombrowski was successful with teams–his strategy is to merely trade away prospects for proven MLB players, and to spend big in free agency. He then quickly leaves or gets fired, saddling the team he leaves with overpaid fading stars and no prospects in the farm system. Dombrowski operates over the short-term and it’s believed that many executives would be capable of similar success if they were given that kind of backing from ownership to go for it.
In a baseball world that idolizes Billy Beane and Andrew Friedman, guys who made the most of limited resources and continued to find ways to win on the margins to remain competitive, Dombrowski feels like a brute. He’s the hare racing against the tortoise–sprinting ahead of everyone without any thought of sustainability, only to be caught in the end by the cerebral executives who truly understand how to build a proper baseball franchise.
In fact, one could argue that Dombrowski’s achievements with multiple franchises is only made possible because his methods are so unsustainable. He can’t stick around with the same franchise and be successful, because all of his teams need a hard reset after a few years. So Dombrowski moves on and finds the next ambitious owner who is looking to win now.
The brilliance of Dombrowski though is that many teams try to “win now” and make aggressive moves and trades, driving the payroll up in the hopes of grabbing some momentary relevance. None of them are as successful as Dombrowski, who over time has consistently shown the ability to assemble a major league roster and coaching staff that is capable of getting the job done in October. The Marlins asked him to assemble a winner in 1997 and he did just that. Ownership immediately balked at paying the bill the next year and orchestrated a fire sale. Dombrowski would actually be responsible for acquiring a huge part of the 2003 Marlins team (including Mike Lowell, Miguel Cabrera, Derek Lee, Josh Beckett and Brad Penny).
He went to Detroit and actually didn’t jump right in with a winner. Instead his teams lost a lot, and he slowly rebuilt the team for a few seasons. But by 2006 they were one of the most formidable teams in the AL, advancing to the World Series a year after losing 91 games. Despite claims that Dombrowski could never build something sustainable, he would be in Detroit for 14 years, making the World Series twice and at one point making three straight ALCS appearances.
Then he was on to Boston. We all know what happened there. He took a listless team that had finished last in back-to-back years and got them into the playoffs his first year in charge. He signed Craig Kimbrel, he signed David Price. He traded for Chris Sale and signed JD Martinez. He hired Alex Cora as manager. After back-to-back 90+ win seasons his first two years, he had an 108-win juggernaut, the best team in Red Sox history, that demolished opponents on his way to the World Series.
He was fired ten months later–not unlike in his first stint with the Marlins, ownership was balking at the high cost of doing business with Dombrowski and a rebuild was deemed necessary.
He landed on his feet of course, going to Philadelphia, making trades and signing free agents and again correctly identifying the right players to succeed. They made the World Series last year and look poised to do it again this year.
Yet, it still feels like people view Dombrowski as a bit of a carnival trick. A guy who rashly trades away top prospects and spends recklessly, providing brief windows of contention followed by years of needed rebuild. People may remember the winning, but they certainly talked for years later about the Miguel Cabrera contract, or the Chris Sale contract.
However, Dombrowski probably deserves a lot more credit in terms of sustainability. The Marlins should have been competitive for longer if not for a rash fire sale, and after a few years Dombrowski had adequately restocked the team with young talent that would go on to win another World Series (only to be quickly sold off again). Detroit had a ten-year window of contention. When he left Boston, yes there was the Price contract and the Sale contract, but there was still a strong young core of talent, and the team’s subsequent underachievement is hard to be pinned on Dombrowski.
Perhaps more important than all of that, Dombrowski’s teams are fun. Squads full of big name players, sluggers that hit mammoth home runs and pitchers that struck tons of guys out. The kind of teams that get young kids invested in the team, and provide lifelong memories for fanbases desperate to see a winner. Yes, there is the inevitable rebuild, but if you brought Dombrowski in, you got a high-quality team that was a blast to watch and were almost guaranteed you would be playing deep into October. If you want to win, if you really, really want to win, your best bet is to hire Dave Dombrowski.
