SAN ANTONIO — The night the Phillies’ season ended in disappointment , many players, coaches and front-office officials took late-night buses home to Philadelphia. Some stayed in New York. John Middleton chose to drive back the following morning.
He walked into the executive offices at Citizens Bank Park around lunchtime and found Dave Dombrowski. Advertisement “Do you have time to talk?” Middleton asked Dombrowski. Sure, the veteran executive told the Phillies owner.
“Let me tell you,” Dombrowski said, “about the conversations I’ve already had.” Middleton was angry in the immediate aftermath of the team’s postseason exit in the National League Division Series. Still is, he said.
Middleton wanted to force tougher conversations about how to push forward. But Dombrowski, the club’s president of baseball operations, forced those issues first. “That’s what I wanted to see,” Middleton said.
“I wanted to see people reacting in a way, like, the house is on fire. Not: We got time. Let’s go lick our wounds.
Let’s spend a couple of days off. Let’s relax and unwind. Then we’ll come back.
It is like, literally by noon, David had three major conversations with all these key people. And that’s exactly what it should have been.” An important Phillies offseason officially began Monday when free agency opened and executives from across the sport gathered at a posh Texas resort for the annual general managers’ meetings.
The Phillies plan to spend. Th.
