Phillies banking on the Dombrowski-Girardi combo to end their playoff drought

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The Phillies have made official their hiring of Dave Dombrowski as their first-ever president of baseball operations.

Dombrowski, 64, is former general manager of the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox. He won a World Series in Florida and Boston and two American League pennants in Detroit. He was most recently president of baseball ops for the Red Sox from 2015 to 2019. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2018 and he was fired late in the 2019 season.

Dombrowski succeeds Matt Klentak, who was stripped of his GM duties in October after five seasons.

The Phillies have not had a winning season or been to the playoffs since 2011. They are banking on Dombrowski breaking that drought.

“Between David and (manager) Joe Girardi, we now have two of the best people in place to set us on the path back to where we want to be, and that is the postseason and contending for world championships,” said managing partner John Middleton.

Dombrowski’s name surfaced as a potential candidate in October. At the time, Dombrowski did not appear to be a serious candidate because he was involved in a group trying to land an expansion franchise in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Phillies interviewed former Marlins executive Michael Hill, Dodgers executive Josh Byrnes and Twins executive Thad Levine for the position in recent weeks while keeping in contact with Dombrowski, who earlier this week became open to the idea of leading the Phillies.

Here are 10 thoughts on the hire.

And here is a look at Dombrowski’s best trades and signings at his last two stops with the Red Sox and Tigers.

Dombrowski will hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m.

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