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Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski joined the 94 WIP Morning show with Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie on Wednesday, touching on a broad-reaching number of Phillies topics (Audacy link to the entire 20-minute interview). It’s a good listen for fans of any club – Phils fans in particular, of course – wherein Philadelphia’s top decision-maker discusses his team’s relatively quiet offseason, the state of the rotation and the outfield, Zack Wheeler’s future with the club, top prospect Andrew Painter’s health and quite a bit more.
Among the more notable takeaways was Dombrowski’s reply when asked about a potential late move for one of the remaining big-name starters on the board. Dombrowski didn’t comment on either Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery by name but expressed that he’s content with the club’s rotation. As far back as early November, Dombrowski touted fifth starter Cristopher Sanchez as someone the team believes can be a big regular in the rotation and his comments Wednesday mesh with that line of thinking. Dombrowski didn’t expressly rule out the addition of another starter but implied that the team wasn’t about to pay market rate for one of the remaining names out there.
“I can’t tell you that somebody doesn’t fall into your lap at some point where you say, ’Gee, that’s an opportunity we can’t turn down,'” Dombrowski said. That suggests a willingness to remain open-minded to some late, unexpected drops in price but doesn’t sound like a portent for an aggressive pursuit of a top-tier free agent.
That said, there was at least one name the Phillies considered worthy of an exception: Yoshinobu Yamamoto. It’s already been reported that the Phillies were a legitimate suitor for the 25-year-old NPB ace before he signed a record deal with the Dodgers and Dombrowski now confirms that his team was “very involved” in Yamamoto’s market. The veteran baseball ops leader went so far as to say that others might be “shocked” to learn how much money the Phillies ultimately offered – naturally, he declined to specify – before indicating that Yamamoto simply had a preference to be a Dodger. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber reported last week that the Phils also made a 12-year offer, although it’s unclear if they were willing to match the $325M guarantee which Yamamoto received from Los Angeles.
Obviously, any multi-year addition to the rotation could provide the Phillies with some insurance in the event that Wheeler departs as a free agent at season’s end. But Dombrowski called Wheeler “one of the best pitchers in baseball” and stressed that it’s “important” and a “priority” for the Phillies find a way to re-sign the right-hander.
Wheeler, 34 in May, has outperformed the five-year, $118M contract he signed with the Phillies in the 2019-20 offseason. He’s garnered Cy Young consideration in three of his four Phillies seasons, highlighted by a second-place finish in 2021 and a sixth-place finish in 2023.
Over the past four seasons, he’s tied with Corbin Burnes for the fourth-most innings in Major League Baseball and leads MLB in FanGraphs’ wins above replacement. He’s notched a tidy 3.06 ERA despite typically playing in front of one of the game’s weakest defenses, thanks in large part to a sharp 26.7% strikeout rate and excellent 5.3% walk rate. A new contract for Wheeler would begin with his age-35 season, which caps his earning potential to an extent, but recent history has shown teams are willing to pay elite arms even at the late stages of their careers.
A look at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker highlights some recent examples of age-35 (or older) pitchers cashing in. Jacob deGrom signed a five-year deal with a $37M annual value, while Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander both inked multi-year deals at a $43.333M AAV. The AAV on Yu Darvish’s extension, beginning in his age-37 season, is just $18M – but that was a function of the Padres drawing out the term in order to drive down the annual salary for luxury-tax purposes. Darvish still secured a $90M guarantee on that front-loaded deal and was two years older than Wheeler will be in year one of a theoretical free-agent pact or extension. Suffice it to say, Wheeler will be the relatively rare big leaguer who has a chance at multiple nine-figure contracts in his career.
On the point of the team’s defense, Dombrowski cited that as a primary reason the team has not pursued additional outfield help with much aggression this spring. Young Johan Rojas dazzled with his defensive ratings (+15 Defensive Runs Saved, +6 Outs Above Average) in just 392 innings of center field work. Asked if Rojas will be the team’s primary center fielder this season, Dombrowski all but anointed the 23-year-old.
“Likely? Yes,” Dombrowski replied. “Definitively? No. We saw enough the last couple months in August and September that we liked what we saw. I’ve talked to our hitting people at length about his progress over the winter time. He’s worked extremely hard. He’s made adjustments that he needs to make. I’m not saying he’s going to come up and hit .300 with 20 home runs off the bat, but I think he can do enough offensively and contribute from an offensive perspective. And when you add his speed and his defense, all of a sudden he becomes a real plus for us. So yes, I do think he’ll be up, but he has to earn that, too. We’re not just going to give it to him.”
Even as he made those caveats, Dombrowski also spoke of the team’s desire to get Kyle Schwarber more time at designated hitter and to keep Bryce Harper at first base as a means of improving the defense (as opposed to the alternative scenario where Schwarber plays left field and Rhys Hoskins were re-signed to split time between DH and first base). Rojas’ bat looked impressive during his brief regular-season look, as he hit .302/.342/.430 in 164 plate appearances, but that was buoyed by an unsustainable .410 average on balls in play. His bat went ice cold in the playoffs, too, as Rojas fell into a woeful 4-for-43 swoon and struck out in a third of his plate appearances.
Despite the postseason struggles, it appears Rojas will have first crack at the regular center field job. The Phillies are generally thin in terms of outfield depth and Wednesday afternoon’s DFA of Simon Muzziotti could add to that if he’s traded or claimed by another club. There’s perhaps the chance that the Phils could add a bench bat to the mix and outfield would be a natural spot, given the lackluster offensive contributions of Jake Cave and limited track record of Cristian Pache.
Dombrowski acknowledged the possibility of adding a bench bat, simply noting “that might end up happening,” but he didn’t characterize it as a major item that’s yet to be checked off the to-do list. Speaking in general terms, the Phillies president again implied that between wanting to give Rojas a real chance and the veteran nature of much of his roster, free agents have seen greater opportunity for playing time with other clubs thus far. There’s still quite a few names yet unsigned, so it stands to reason that the Phils could eventually find a bargain addition to deepen the mix. Pache, Cave and utility infielder Edmundo Sosa are all out of options, however, so adding a player to the bench mix would likely mean jettisoning someone like Cave, who’s already agreed to a $1M salary for the 2024 season. That isn’t likely to be a major roadblock to any further additions, but it’ll factor into the calculus all the same.
Starting pitching depth, too, has been a recent area the Phillies have been searching. They signed former Braves first-rounder Kolby Allard to a split big league deal last month due in no small part to the fact that he has a minor league option remaining. That same line of thinking surely influenced Wednesday’s claim of righty Max Castillo from the Red Sox.
The Phillies have top prospects Mick Abel and Griff McGarry working through the minor league system, and while both could make their debuts in 2024, neither has yet pitched even five innings above the Double-A level. Painter was a rotation candidate early last season but wound up going down with an elbow injury that ultimately required Tommy John surgery. Dombrowski said in this morning’s interview that Painter has begun “tossing” a ball recently and is on schedule but that the organization is “looking toward 2025” with regard to the prized righty and isn’t planning on him pitching in games this season. There’s always the possibility his recovery progresses more quickly than expected, but the 20-year-old right-hander doesn’t appear to be someone the Phillies are banking on for even a late-season cameo.
More must-reads:
- Phillies president details pursuit of Japanese star pitcher
- Phillies claim RHP Max Castillo off waivers from Red Sox
- The '30 or more home runs in 2021' quiz
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Rafael Devers had telling comment about playing first base
Rafael Devers played first base for the San Francisco Giants for the first time on Tuesday, and his quote about playing the field likely will not sit well with Boston Red Sox fans. Devers said after Tuesday’s game that he prefers playing in the field as opposed to serving as a designated hitter. “It keeps me active. It keeps my head out of just thinking about the next at-bat,” Devers said, via Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’d rather be on the field than in the cage hitting all the time and thinking about the next at-bat.” Devers, of course, refused to play first base for the Red Sox after they asked him to. He felt disrespected after they moved him off third base to accommodate Alex Bregman, and thought the team went back on its word by later asking him to play first. To Red Sox fans, if Devers is best playing in the field and playing first would have helped the team, it will be baffling why he did not just do it when that would seemingly have been a preferable outcome for all involved. Devers went 2-for-5 in Tuesday’s 9-0 win over the Atlanta Braves, driving in a run in his first appearance at first base. It remains unclear how frequently the Giants plan to use him at the position, but the team might take note of these comments.
Five reasons the NHL's new 84-game schedule is a bad idea
“The NHL schedule is just too short!” said no one ever. In early July, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association ratified a four-year extension to their collective bargaining agreement through September 2030. The deal was rightfully praised as a win for the sport. After decades of bad blood and the lingering threat of labor stoppages, an extension — that kicks in for the 2026-27 season — arriving more than a year early speaks volumes on the health of the players’ relationship with the league. Amid the good vibes, it was easy to discount one small change with potentially significant consequences: an increase from 82 to 84 games in the NHL’s regular season. We’re diving into the league’s new schedule and considering the unforeseen impact of adding more games to a packed calendar. Here are five key reasons this subtle shift is an ill-timed cash grab by hockey’s power brokers. History of the schedule Before we get into the future schedule, it’s important to understand the league’s past. The visual below shows the maximum number of combined games a team has potentially been able to play across the regular season and postseason since expansion. Forcing more games out of the talent is far from a new idea. With the exception of abbreviated lockout and pandemic calendars — excluded above — the NHL’s schedule length had been the same since the mid-1990s. Teams currently play 82 regular-season games, while the Stanley Cup finalists can play another 28 if their four best-of-seven series go the maximum. That’s 110. The league briefly dabbled with an 84-game season schedule in 1992-93 and 1993-94 where teams played a pair of neutral-site games to serve as feelers for future expansion. It didn’t stick. For 30 years, everyone seemed to agree — the season was long enough. 82 games wedged into six-plus months and four grueling playoff rounds was plenty. Plus preseason games, All-Star weekends, and international events. Every cent had been squeezed, every sweat drop had been left on the ice. Until now… ✅ Arguments for Change Prior to picking apart the new 84-game version, the reasons supporting the additional games deserve their day in court. And there are reasons, sort of. It balances the schedule. 84 games ensures each team plays its division rivals exactly four times. Argument against: Ah, competitive balance. It’s a nice idea. But let’s be serious. If anyone had the slightest interest in fairness, the current playoff format would be scrapped. The NHL’s division-based bracket often features first-round series between elite teams. The format doesn’t reseed either, leading to easier postseason paths for weaker teams. We can’t pretend a balanced schedule matters. The preseason has been reduced by two games. You may be screaming that this is all noise as the new CBA has offset the preseason by two games — a net-zero change in game count. Argument against: Established veterans mostly sit out the exhibition calendar anyway, reluctantly drawing in for two or three low-intensity games to appease fans and shake off rust. Two intra-division games tacked onto the schedule don’t offset meaningless autumn skates that top players mostly watch from home. There is money to be made. Money is the only (real) reason for adding to the schedule. Two extra divisional matches sell more tickets, TV ads and draft beer. The owners and players share equally in any new hockey-related revenue. Argument against: Sure, 84 regular-season games generates more dollars than 82 games. So would 86 games. Or 100 games. A postseason play-in round would create “must-watch” games too. But where does this line of thinking end? Everyone signed off on the change. While we’re not privy to the details on whether scheduling was a contentious issue, both the NHL and NHLPA bilaterally agreed from negotiations. Argument against: The NFL added one game in 2021 to create a 17-game schedule. Many players still hate it. There’s now buzz of an 18th game. While money talks, sometimes leadership needs to save the players from themselves. ❌ Why 84 games is a bad idea The new CBA had its chance to prove to us more games is good for hockey. It hasn’t. Let’s get down to why this money-driven move shouldn’t have gone forward. 1. Players are finally getting healthier. While missed games aren’t a perfect measure to weigh frequency and severity of injury, it’s a reasonable proxy for player health. Enter NHL Injury Viz, which houses 25 years of player injury and illness data. I’ve normalized games missed by season for schedule length and team count over the past quarter-century, and the results are fascinating. From the visual, we can see that games missed have now dropped below pre-pandemic levels. Given the data counts injuries and illnesses that players actually miss games from, we can’t say that every single physical issue is factored. But we can conclude that in 2024-25, NHL players missed the fewest relative number of games in at least 23 years. In a league where players missing “only” 6,641 games is a positive trend, cramming in a few more tough matchups to juice a percentage point of revenue feels wrong. 2. We are wearing out our biggest superstars. No one is going to cry for Connor McDavid. He’s 28 years old and has earned just shy of $100 million in his 10-year career before endorsements. His next deal could push him near $20 million per season given the rising salary cap. Two more games shouldn’t wreck a finely tuned athlete. But consider his last two years. On top of the preseason schedule, McDavid faced 164 regular-season games (missed 21 due to injury), the midseason 4 Nations Face-off (scored the winning goal), plus two All-Star weekends (designed and won the 2025 skills event). He’s also played an additional 53 games of nasty postseason hockey with fewer than 90 days off each summer. That’s more than 230 game days in 21 months. While international best-on-best hockey is great for all of us, McDavid will fly to Italy and back for another six Olympic contests in February 2026. This compresses the NHL season further, resulting in 13 back-to-back outings for the Oilers, who have a famously exhausting travel schedule. With international play now slated as part of the league’s bi-annual calendar, do we need to drain the top guys further? 3. Load management is inevitable — if it hasn’t already started. Hockey fans famously chirp their basketball-loving pals about NBA talent skipping games. Hockey players would never sit out to rest. Well, we might test that theory soon. Every sport has a tipping point. In an NHL where 10 of 16 playoff teams can usually sleepwalk to the postseason, someone is going to implement the obvious benefit of load management. It may have crept in late last season… McDavid missed eight games in April with a lower-body injury. With a playoff spot secured, he was not rushed back, coasting to his 100th point in the season finale against the lowly San Jose Sharks. Leon Draisaitl, with the Rocket Richard Trophy locked, missed Edmonton’s final seven games with an undisclosed injury. He was fit enough to play the Oilers’ first playoff game, logging two points in 22:02. After leading NHL forwards in average ice time (22:47), reigning MVP Nathan MacKinnon sat the final three games with an undisclosed injury. It may have cost him the scoring title — he lost by five points to Nikita Kucherov — but ensured MacKinnon was well-rested for the postseason. While these might not be random Tuesdays in January, three of the league’s biggest stars may have quietly started a trend last spring. They were good with recovering slowly for the greater good. Goaltenders are already ahead of the curve to maximize performance — only five started 60 games last year. Will these two extra games, combined with a recurring international slate, finally push sport science in hockey to its inevitable conclusion? 4. The NHL product will get watered down. Logically, the longer the season, the less important each game becomes. The new CBA is effectively telling us that by adding to the calendar. It’s not good for entertainment purposes. Here’s why: Even if players don’t sit out, there is another consequence … they just don’t play as hard (gasp). Again, it’s two games. But we all know that feeling when you see your favorite team play the first minute of its first April playoff game. The elevated speed and physicality on that opening dump in where you lean toward the TV and nod at your buddy? This is what we give up with more games. Like you or I, athletes only have so much to give in a week, a month or a year. With ongoing talk of further expansion, more teams spread out talent. More games spread out intensity, further diluting the product. 5. The cap is already rising significantly. In the last decade, when the salary cap rose modestly — or not at all during the pandemic years — adding games to the schedule was a defendable lever to pull. Wealthy owners and athletes or not, things were ugly in the not-too-distant past. When would fans return to arenas? How much escrow were the players facing? Would league economics ever get back on track? While many dollars were lost from COVID, the rising salary cap tells a story of a league confident in economic resurgence. The cap ceiling is set to rise 29% from this past season by 2027-28. We saw the first signs of player compensation boosts in July as teams and player agents stickhandled their new reality. While free agents always get paid, they were paid this offseason given the generous cap space. Adding to the schedule as the cap quickly climbs feels like missing the forest through the trees. Conclusion: Adding two games to the calendar may not bring mass injuries, load management and a tired product overnight. But tipping points are difficult to identify in the moment. The new schedule also messes with recordkeeping and milestones, among other statistical issues. Much-needed labor peace is a win for anyone in hockey, yet even the biggest superfan would have to admit the season runs excessively long. At best, the NHL and NHLPA have taken a shortsighted risk. At worst, it could deliver a host of negative, unintended consequences.
Penn State QB Drew Allar gets candid about team's struggles against top opponents
It is no secret that Penn State has struggled to win big games under head coach James Franklin. While the Nittany Lions have finished with double-digit wins in six of the past nine seasons, including a 13-3 season in 2024 that culminated with a loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals, they have struggled to beat quality opponents. Quarterback Drew Allar, who enters the 2025 season with the fifth-shortest odds (+1600) to win the Heisman Trophy, per FanDuel, was honest about Penn State's lack of success during his appearance at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday. "We definitely need to get over the hump," Allar said, per ESPN's Jake Trotter. "There's no question about it." Penn State is only 4-20 against top-10 opponents under Franklin, although the three losses last season were all by one score. Allar is 23-6 as a starter, but threw a costly interception against Notre Dame that ultimately led to the game-winning field goal from the Fighting Irish. With experience on its side and lofty expectations entering the season as the No. 1-ranked team in ESPN's offseason poll, Allar pointed to better execution as a key to Penn State's success. "We definitely need to find different ways to come out with different results in those games," Allar said. "We haven't really been blown out of the water by any team. ... it's just about execution. ... finding those areas to make one or two more plays throughout those games. ... That's going to be our focus." One key for Penn State is the return of its two leading rushers from last season, Kaytron Allen (1,108 yards) and Nicholas Singleton (1,099 yards), who combined for 20 TDs. That experience, along with Allar's improved accuracy (66.5%) and career-high 3,327 passing yards from 2024, gives the Nittany Lions a lot of upside going into 2025. Allar did have an uptick in interceptions (eight) and was sacked 19 times last season, which are two concerning areas, especially against top-ranked opponents. That must improve for Penn State to reverse course and finally win meaningful games. For now, the focus is on its lack of success in those games under Franklin. If Penn State can execute and not beat itself, perhaps one of those games will eventually go its way. Until then, it will face the same questions as it looks to put its past struggles in big games behind it.
Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski continues to set radar gun on fire at unprecedented rate
Milwaukee Brewers Jacob Misiorowski was back on the mound on Tuesday night against the Seattle Mariners, and even though he pitched just 3.2 innings, he continued to show why he is one of baseball's most exciting young talents. Prior to be pulled after 64 pitches, he allowed just three hits, walked one and struck out seven to continue his stunning start to his big league career. He also continued to light up the radar gun in a way that no other pitcher in the modern era has. Following Tuesday's start, where he regularly clocked in at over 101 mph, he has now thrown 39 pitches this season that have eclipsed 101 mph on the radar gun. He has done that in just 29.1 innings over six starts. By comparison, every other starting pitcher in Major League Baseball has tallied just 17 pitches of 101 mph or higher — combined. But it's not just about how he stacks up with pitchers this season that is staggering. It's that he is near the top of the list for 101 mph pitches for a career. Here are two of his 101 mph heaters from Tuesday. The ball just erupts out of his hand at the hitters. When you add in his mid-90s change-up and high-90s breaking pitches he is already one of the nastiest pitchers in the majors. It is that sort of electric stuff that made him a National League All-Star after just five appearances. For the season, he has now struck out 40 batters in 29.1 innings of work (that is 12.27 per nine innings), allowed only 15 hits and just eight earned runs. And five of those earned runs against came in only one start. Given his age and with the way teams today are extremely protective of their pitchers, he is probably going to see his pitch counts and innings closely monitored this season. When he is on the mound, though, he is quickly becoming appointment viewing.
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