The first time I met Dave Dombrowski he had just been hired by the Montreal Expos. He’d been hired as director of player development for the 1987 season under Bill Stoneman. In July of the next season he became the youngest general manager in baseball at age 31.
He had worked his way up with the Chicago White Sox starting at age 22 from an administrative assistant to assistant general manager but when Ken Harrelson took over the front office for a year, everybody was gone.
His stay in Montreal lasted only until September 1991 but he had started and continues to deliver winning teams that knock on championships door almost every season.
His Expos stay included a spectacular rise and fall in 1989. Never afraid of bold moves, Dombrowski traded for all star lefthander Mark Langston on May 25th when the Expos were just 23-23. Included in that trade with Seattle was future Hall of famer Randy Johnson.
The team managed by Buck Rodgers proceeded to go 40-21 after the trade and sat three games up in the NL East on August 2nd at 63-44. That’s when it started to fall apart, they lost seven in a row. eventually finishing at .500 after an 18-37 record in the season’s final third.
It would not be his last disappointment but he had set in motion the team that would sit atop baseball when the 1994 baseball strike hit. He was however no longer there.
Expansion brings Dombrowski to Florida
While the Expos managed eighty-five wins in 1990, they struggled through the 1991 season. The Expansion Florida Marlins who were starting up in 1993 were given permission to talk with Dombrowki and he bolted for South Florida in September.
Buliding a franchise from the ground up, Dombrowski built his first champion. By his fifth season there, he had found his calling. Putting together a group of the right seasoned veterans and some baby faces.
The 1997 world series winning Marlins included hitters Bobby Bonilla, Moises Alou, Darren Daulton and Gary Shefiield along with veteran pitchers Kevin Brown and Al Leiter. The line up however also included a middle infield of 20 year old shortstop Edgar Renteria and 22 year old second baseman Luis Castillo.
Tigers call after fire sale
Following the championship, Dombrowski was forced to trade those veterans by then owner H. Wayne Huizenga. He would eventually depart for the President’s job in Detroit in November 2001. He did however leave behind the nucleus of another title winner in Miami in 2003
Dombrowski’s stay in Detroit was his longest and they were terrible for five years before his 2006 team turned it around and made it to the world series. He did find the front of his pitching staff in Justin Verlander but the success was short lived.
Five more years passed before the Tigers hit their stride. By then he had made two significant trades. He acquired a pair of sure fire hall of famers in Miguel Cabrera and Max Scherzer. Four straight first place finishes followed from 2011-2014. Three ALCS visits, one world series but alas no championships.
On August 4th, 2015 Dombrowski was released by the Tigers. They didn’t make the playoffs again until this season. They went five times in fourteen years when he was there.
On to that Red Sox championship
Two weeks after his ouster in Detroit he resurfaced in Boston as president of baseball operations. There, he would enjoy three consecutive first place finishes after Boston had placed fifth twice.
He would acquire pitchers Craig Kimbrel, David Price, Chris Sale and hitter J.D. Martinez. He hired Houston bench coach Alex Cora and that third season proved magical, garnering his 2nd world series title in 2018 and he was named executive of the year for a second time.
The Red Sox fired him the following September, ten months after that championship. He sat out an entire season before the Phillies came calling. After ten seasons without a playoff appearance, the Phillies have made it three times in a row, knocking on the door of a title.
After signing hitters Kyke Schwarber and Nick Castellanos the Phillies took Dombrowski to his fifth world series. The Phils made it to game seven of the NLCS last year and won ninety-five games this season but lost in the NLDS.
There’s still time for another championship as Dombrowski readies for 2025, perhaps with another deal or two in this off season. His contract runs through 2027.
