Green energy has Phillies on the march again
The Phillies' Bryce Harper, center, displays his championship ring with Phillies president Dave Dombrowski, right, and CEO John Middleton during the National League ring ceremony before a game against the Reds on April 9 in Philadelphia. Credit: AP
PHILADELPHIA
The Phillies didn’t invent trying to buy a championship. The Bronx was the birthplace of that strategy, and the concept of checkbook baseball was taken to the extreme this year in Flushing.
But the home office for turning dollars into W’s now resides at Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies are getting the most bang for their (big) bucks as they stand on the verge of a second consecutive trip to the World Series.
Though any owner could choose to spend outrageously in a sport without a salary cap, few have the stomach for it, and even fewer have turned it into a successful business plan.
Look at MLB’s top five payrolls. The first three were spectacular failures. The $377 million Mets finished 12 games under .500 (75-87) and the Yankees ($294M) and Padres ($280M) barely clawed their way to 82-win seasons. The fifth was the Dodgers, whose $251 million investment produced an NL West title for the 10th time in 11 years but ended in a Division Series sweep by the Diamondbacks.
The outlier among that deep-pocketed crowd is the Phillies, whose $263 million payroll ranked fourth in the majors. They’re the only one left from that stratosphere still playing in the October tournament.
That run continued in Monday night’s NLCS opener, powered by the Phillies’ free-agent core. Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos homered in a 5-3 victory over the Diamondbacks at Citizens Bank Park.
Schwarber and Harper drilled first-pitch blasts off D-backs ace Zac Gallen in the first inning and Castellanos later went deep for the fifth time in three playoff games. J.T. Realmuto added an RBI single in the fifth.
Zack Wheeler, a former Met turned Phillies ace, allowed two runs in six innings, striking out eight without a walk. Craig Kimbrel picked up the save.
That’s a huge October payoff — all from marquee free-agent imports.
What separates the Phillies from the other big-spending flops? You could point to their president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, whose nearly 50-year front-office career shows a knack for betting on the right free agents, resulting in two World Series titles with the Marlins and Red Sox (as well as near-misses in Detroit).
Dombrowski, 67, is no whiz kid seeking to exploit market inefficiencies to make himself look smart. He’s the front-office guy you pay to deliver a championship when the price tag is no concern. But that’s also not possible without a principal owner in John Middleton who first green-lighted the Phillies’ expensive rebuild by signing Harper to a 13-year, $330 million contract heading into the 2019 season.
Harper’s arrival beat Dombrowski by roughly 10 months — Matt Klentak was general manager at that time — but Middleton’s stated desire to throw “stupid money” at his Phillies was like putting up the Bat Signal for his new baseball ops prez.
Starting with Harper, the Phillies committed $1.042 billion on a half-dozen players, in order: Realmuto ($115.5M), Wheeler ($118M), Schwarber ($79M), Castellanos ($100M) and Trea Turner ($300M).
Last year, Dombrowski’s piloting of Middleton’s checkbook got the Phillies to the sixth game of the World Series, which they lost to the Astros. This October, they knocked off 104-win Atlanta quite handily and are the presumptive favorites to get back to the Fall Classic, if not finish the job this time.
“I think Dave Dombrowski does a phenomenal job of bringing the right guys in,” Harper said before Monday’s NLCS opener. “Everywhere he goes, he does well. I think being able to have Mr. Middleton let Dave do his job is huge . . . Everybody lets everybody do their jobs.
“That’s the same thing with our team. If each individual guy does their job, you’re going to win, and you’re going to win at the highest level. If we continue to do that as an organization, I think we’re going to do this for a long time.”
This is what Harper means by the “right guys”: players who don’t shrink come October.
Before Monday night, Harper, who went deep twice in Game 3 of the Division Series, had a .633 playoff slugging percentage, which ranked third all-time behind Babe Ruth (.744) and Lou Gehrig (.731) among players with a minimum of 150 plate appearances. He also had a 1.216 OPS in 23 postseason games for the Phillies.
Castellanos was batting .391 (9-for-23) in these playoffs and last week became the first player in history to hit multiple homers in back-to-back postseason games.
As for Turner, whose sluggish debut season abruptly took off after a standing ovation from the Bank’s crowd, he was hitting .500 (12-for-24) with two homers.
People talk about the payroll a lot less when those contracts are performing the way they should. And that’s made the Bank — an appropriate nickname for the Phillies’ ballpark — a very giddy place in October. All that cash being deposited is paying off.
“It’s not my money,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “So I’m very happy that we signed them. Thanks to John Middleton.”
Middleton doesn’t get the same attention as Hal Steinbrenner or Steve Cohen, but he’s setting the standard for the industry, turning the Phillies into a powerhouse with a combination of cash and character.
It’s not as if Middleton paid for a significant shortcut. This rebuild has been underway since that Harper signing in 2019. But if the Phillies end up winning the third championship in the franchise’s 140-year history, it’s a timetable that reminds us of Cohen’s pledge when he took over the Mets after the 2020 season.
So yes, the Phillies are proof that the dream of buying a title remains alive this season — as long as you’re a smart shopper.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
