When it comes to Phils' OF, Dombrowski keeping an open mind

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A few days before Christmas, the Phillies learned that Yoshinobu Yamamoto had accepted a $325 million offer from the Dodgers. The next day, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that the team planned to move forward by finding pitching depth before Spring Training.

But that depth does not mean Blake Snell or Josh Hader. Sources have said repeatedly throughout the offseason that both are unlikely to sign with Philadelphia.

What about an outfielder?

“Not outfield,” Dombrowski said then. “When we talked about outfield, we said [we’d] keep an open mind, but we also are in a position with [Johan] Rojas where we’re really not trying to block his path to the big leagues.”

That thinking has not changed, Dombrowski reiterated this week.

If an opportunity presents itself, yes, the Phillies will act on it. But the plan is to have Nick Castellanos in right field, Brandon Marsh in left and Rojas in center, an alignment that worked well late in the 2023 regular season. The Phillies believe it can work again -- if Rojas hits. Rojas posted 2.5 WAR in only 59 games as a rookie, which tied for seventh on the team with Taijuan Walker.

Rojas was so impactful because he played Gold Glove-caliber center field and because he had a .772 OPS in 164 plate appearances.

But he also went 4-for-43 with one walk and 15 strikeouts in the postseason, which is why there is such external concern about the Phillies’ outfield depth. But the team’s belief that Rojas can produce enough offensively, while knowing he will be one of the game’s truly elite center fielders, explains why they are not planning to acquire a prototypical fourth outfielder before Spring Training.

A prototypical fourth outfielder is almost certainly a veteran, and any veteran is going to want a certain number of plate appearances. Those plate appearances will not exist if Castellanos, Marsh and Rojas play as much as the Phillies hope they’ll play. (They seem to figure that Cristian Pache and Jake Cave can pick up the remaining at-bats.)

But desperate times call for desperate measures. If a veteran outfielder is lingering on the market as Spring Training approaches, perhaps they might come to Philly without expectations. And that is why Dombrowski has said the Phillies will continue to keep an open mind.