PHILADELPHIA - The Phillies have hired longtime major league executive David Dombrowski as the club’s first-ever president of baseball operations, Managing Partner John Middleton announced today. Dombrowski had previously headed up the baseball operations departments for the Montreal Expos (1988-91), Florida Marlins (1991-2001), Detroit Tigers (2001-15), and Boston Red Sox (2015-19), constructing world championship teams in both Florida (1997) and Boston (2018). He also won two American League pennants with Detroit (2006, 2012).
Phillies hire Dombrowski as President of Baseball Operations
Dombrowski, 64, is returning to the National League for the first time in 19 years. He is the only general manager in major league history to take three different teams to the World Series and is one of five to have won a World Series title with two different teams. In his 31 years as a president or general manager, his teams have made the playoffs nine times, winning seven division titles, four pennants, and two World Series. Under his leadership in Boston, the Red Sox won three straight division titles (2016-18) for the first time since divisional play began in 1969 and his .588 winning percentage is the highest in club history. In Dombrowski’s last nine seasons, his teams have gone 813-613 (.570), with seven playoff appearances, two pennants, and one World Series title.
“This is a great day for the Philadelphia Phillies,” said Middleton. “David Dombrowski is one of the most accomplished executives this great game has ever seen, and we are thrilled to welcome him to Philadelphia. Between David and Joe Girardi, we now have two of the best people in place to set us on the path back to where we want to be, and that is the postseason and contending for world championships.”
In addition to his success at the major league level, Dombrowski has also had some prominent first-round draft selections throughout his career. Some of the notable names include Rondell White (1990) and Cliff Floyd (1991) in Montreal; Charles Johnson (1992), Mark Kotsay (1996), Josh Beckett (1999) and Adrian Gonzalez (2000) in Florida; and Justin Verlander (2004), Cameron Maybin (2005), Andrew Miller (2006), Rick Porcello (2007) and Nicholas Castellanos (2010) in Detroit. Five of Dombrowski’s former first-round selections with the Tigers are in the top 12 for overall career WAR among the franchise’s first-rounders (per baseball-reference.com): Verlander (1st), Porcello (5th), Maybin (7th), Castellanos (11th), and Miller (12th). Finally, of the 16 first-round selections (including supplemental picks) made while he was in Detroit, 13 have played in the major leagues.
Among numerous other honors, Dombrowski is a two-time Baseball America Executive of the Year (2006, 2018) – the only executive to have ever won the award twice – and was a co-recipient of The Sporting News Executive of the Year award (2011).
