Dombrowski details needs at GM Meetings

PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies have not swept the NL MVP and Cy Young Awards since Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton won them, respectively, in 1980.

Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler could win them next week.

Of course, the '80 Phillies won the World Series. The 2021 Phillies won 82 games and missed the postseason, which means the organization will need to make several upgrades to put them in position to win the third title in franchise history in 2022. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters this week at the GM Meetings in Carlsbad, Calif., that the Phillies are starting in a good place.

“There’s a real good core,” he said Wednesday. “Now what we have to do is improve the surrounding cast, however we do that. At times when I looked at our club we just weren’t quite good enough to do it. But starting this year with Harper and Wheeler and the other supporting cast is a good place to build around.”

Dombrowski has his priorities.

• He would like a bonafide closer because the Phillies simply cannot keep coughing up late-inning leads like they have the past several seasons. Raisel Iglesias is the best closer on the free-agent market, but the Angels made him a qualifying offer, so the Phillies would forfeit a second-round Draft pick and international bonus pool money to sign him. It is not a deal killer, but the Phillies could look elsewhere for help, too. Craig Kimbrel could be available in a trade. The Phillies also need to find a couple more late-inning relievers to complement returnees like Connor Brogdon, Sam Coonrod, José Alvarado and Seranthony Domínguez.

• The Phillies want to find a legitimate leadoff hitter and another middle-of-the-order bat. They could come in left field and center field, where they need to replace Andrew McCutchen and Odúbel Herrera.

“It’s not easy,” Dombrowski said about finding a cleanup-type hitter. “We have some guys that are legitimate hitters. Like [Rhys] Hoskins is a really good hitter. I do think [new hitting coach] Kevin Long is going to help us with some of the guys that we have. … If you put one other person with [Harper] that would be ideal for us.”

Does that come via trade or free agency?

“Well, I guess we’ll wait and see,” Dombrowski said. “The other thing you could do is you could play two people in a position to do that. So you don’t have to necessarily have one person. You could find two, somebody that’s really good vs. right-handed, somebody who is very good vs. left-handed pitching. Right now it’s early enough that we’re just starting this process that we’re kind of open minded anyway.”

• Because the Phillies are a big-market team, they will be connected to pretty much every big-time free agent until they sign, including a host of free-agent shortstops. The group includes Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Trevor Story and Marcus Semien.

But the Phillies still have Didi Gregorius under contract for one more season. Gregorius had the worst year of his career last season, but he had a “small type of cleanup” in his right elbow following the season, which the Phillies hope will return him to form. But the Phillies are very high on top position prospect Bryson Stott. Dombrowski told reporters on Tuesday that he told Stott to come into Spring Training planning to win the job at shortstop.

For those reasons, and because the Phillies have so many other holes to fill, it doesn’t seem to make as much sense to spend their resources at shortstop.