'Dave always wants to go big': How MLB's best team is approaching the trade deadline

Unlike in recent seasons when the Philadelphia Phillies have entered trade season with clear holes to fill as they play catch-up in the NL East, this year’s team is sitting on top of the baseball world with the best record in the sport on the final weekend of July — but that doesn’t mean they’ll be quiet at the deadline.

Sure, the Phillies only have minor needs to address given they rank first in the majors in scoring and third in run prevention, but sitting out a chance to improve the roster goes against the nature of their top decision-maker, Dave Dombrowski, at least according to one rival evaluator who laughed at the notion that Dombrowski wouldn’t be a major player in the trade market.

“Why do you think there were those Luis Robert Jr. rumors with the Phillies?” the executive said. “Dave always wants to go big.”

Dombrowski went smaller on Friday, addressing one of the team’s weakest links by adding Austin Hays in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles. The Phillies are hoping he’ll improve on the team’s outfield production as they rank 25th in the majors in OPS. Adding a reliever is also a possibility, according to league sources, for a team that plans on using its bullpen deep into October.

Whatever additions Dombrowski makes will be to augment a team that has already proved itself as a World Series favorite, not necessarily a blockbuster deal to put them over the top. Philadelphia has dominated in the standings from Day 1 and has padded its NL East lead since the All-Star break.

With a nine-game cushion in the division, the next few days should be relatively stress-free for the front office, right? Well, sort of. Dombrowski was recently asked if this year’s trade deadline is different for him because his team is on top instead of doing the chasing.

“Yes and no,” he told ESPN. “It’s different, but all the time when you have a chance to win, you’re trying to make your club as good as possible. That was our focus last year. What’s different, this team is really solid. We’re in a position where the number of players you look to add and the impact of those players may not be as large as we needed in the past.”

Over the past two trade deadlines, Dombrowski acquired Brandon Marsh and Michael Lorenzen, among others, and the new additions helped vault the Phillies into the postseason. He admits that not having the pressure of needing that kind of spark just to get to October is a new feeling this time around.

“We had to battle to get in,” Dombrowski said. “And we’re not in yet — but it’s a lot different.”

After finishing the past two seasons 14 games behind the Braves in their own division, a big part of the reason this year’s outlook at the deadline feels so different is that the front office had a plan to ramp up workloads earlier than ever, starting in spring training — and the players have done everything in their control to execute it.

“We planned on bumping innings for pitchers and at-bats for hitters during the spring, but we had an illness that knocked everyone out for a week,” manager Rob Thomson explained with a smile. “So that proved difficult.”

The club worked through that early obstacle and hit the ground running when the regular season began, opening up a 6 1⁄2-game division lead by the end of May, and has not looked back since.

“It was definitely emphasized from the top down,” All-Star shortstop Trea Turner said. “Maybe we were just learning how to be the favorite. That took a year or two. Now we’re expected to win, so that mentality shifts a little. Of course, it’s not about trying harder or wanting to win more. It’s more about that timetable of how baseball works.”

Inside the clubhouse, various reasons have been given for this year’s fast start, beginning with players pointing to the team’s historically good starting rotation. Ranger Suarez, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Christopher Sanchez were at their best coming out of spring training and as a result, the Phillies have led MLB in starting pitching ERA all season with all four pitchers making the NL All-Star team.

Some key position players, most notably All-Star third baseman Alec Bohm, have taken their games to another level as well, and that has made the lineup less dependent on sluggers Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber.

Some players pointed to another unifying factor that has powered the team from the day they arrived at spring training: A collective anger after losing Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS at home to the Diamondbacks last October despite entering the series as heavy favorites to reach a second straight World Series appearance.

“We left last season with a bitter taste in our mouth,” All-Star reliever Matt Strahm said. “You could tell how hungry we were when we reported in Clearwater and how we got off to start the season.”

Baseball is too fickle of a sport to expect a plan laid out in January or February would come to fruition in the exact intended way, but the buy-in from inside the clubhouse made this work.

“It was awareness that we couldn’t wait until June to get it going,” Thomson said. “That was amongst the players, the coaches and the entire organization. It helped.”

“As a team they got it.”

Now with a team that has set itself up for what could be a championship ending, the front office has to decide if a splashy addition or a quieter trade deadline is the right course of action. No matter which direction they decide to go, the Phillies know they are in an enviable position at a time when many execs are already thinking about next season.

“We’ve been there,” Dombrowski smiled. “This year feels different.”