After a yearlong absence, Dave Dombrowski is back in Major League Baseball.
The Philadelphia Phillies announced Friday that the club hired the former Boston Red Sox executive to be its first president of baseball operations.
The Phillies have hired longtime major league executive David Dombrowski as the club’s first-ever president of baseball operations. pic.twitter.com/8lqlw48Yzt
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) December 11, 2020
Dombrowski was keen on leading the initiative to bring a Major League Baseball team to Nashville, but the Phillies "redoubled their efforts" to convince him to take over one of the league's most historic franchises, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.
The 64-year-old began his illustrious front-office career with the Montreal Expos in 1988 before winning a World Series ring with the Miami Marlins in 1997 and helping assemble the team's 2003 championship team. However, he left the organization in 2001 for the Detroit Tigers, a team he helped reach two World Series in 2006 and 2012.
In 2015, he was hired by the Red Sox, who made it clear that it was championship-or-bust in Boston. Dombrowski sacrificed much of Boston's farm system to acquire star players, and it ultimately paid off when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2018.
Despite the title, Dombrowski was fired in 2019 after the Red Sox went 76-67.
He's now tasked with getting the money-crunched Phillies back to the World Series for the first time since 2009. It won't be easy, though Dombrowski has the tools to get the job done.
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