SAN ANTONIO — As Dave Dombrowski and his lieutenants have taken meetings with other clubs and player agents this week at the general managers’ meetings, they continue to repeat a mantra that he’s used to define this Phillies offseason. “I think,” Dombrowski said Wednesday, “we’re (more) open-minded than we have been in other years.” Advertisement What does being open-minded mean? Dombrowski has resisted revealing many details; the Phillies have signaled they intend to acquire an outfielder (probably a left fielder) and at least one right-handed reliever.
They have money to spend. They are certain to eclipse the third luxury-tax threshold of $281 million. The question is whether they go into the fourth tier, which triggers even deeper penalties at $301 million.
An “open-minded” offseason implies something more complex than spending money on a few free agents. This week, Dombrowski said he’s received more calls than usual about players on the Phillies’ roster. This does not surprise him.
He had broadcast his desire to be creative with how he would upgrade the team. Some players, typically those on longer-term, bigger-money deals, are less moveable than others. Dombrowski, the club’s president of baseball operations, has said it sometimes takes trading good players to acquire good players.
It is not atypical for a team to float names at the beginning of an offseason to see what interest they draw. That makes players like Alec Bohm , Ranger Suárez and .