Hot stove season begins. Will Dave Dombrowski make more mistakes like Pete Alonso, Trea Turner, José Alvarado?

With the Brewers’ five-game World Series win it’s the offseason again, which means Dave Dombrowski gets to make more mistakes.

It’s been a rough calendar year for Dealin’ Dave.

Since the 2025 season ended, Dombrowski has insulted the franchise player; constructed a catastrophically bad bullpen; and, for the second straight season, failed to acquire a dependable right-handed power hitter to protect Bryce Harper, who might actually return to eliteness if he had a little help.

This harsh critique might not be totally fair, considering Dombrowski will probably wind up in the Hall of Fame, but he has not exactly covered himself in glory since he became Phillies’ president in 2020. After all, he inherited Harper, ace Zack Wheeler, and dominant lefty Cristopher Sánchez, along with most of the team’s other top contributors, and he has failed to properly augment them.

» READ MORE: Phillies 2027 infield outlook: Free-agent options, prospect forecast, and more

Granted, Dombrowski has hit a few home runs, but for every Jesús Luzardo there is a Taijuan Walker, for every Kyle Schwarber a Nick Castellanos. Talent evaluators with bottomless pockets need to have an average better than .500. In fact, all of their decisions need to be generally sound: who they sign, who they retain, and who plays which positions.

Dombrowski has come up wanting in several of those categories.

In the interest of full disclosure, I publicly criticized one of those decisions; idiotically agreed with another; and pondered the other one, offering no opinion, but only because my colleague, David “Hot Stove” Murphy, beat me to the punch.

Let’s start there.

Alonso, who holds the Mets record for career home runs, left New York as a free agent and signed with the Orioles in the second week of December for five years and $155 million.

The Phillies sniffed around Alonso but, for whatever reason, they were never serious.

“There was a little bit of dialogue, very, very early, more of a ‘Hey, how you doing?’ type of thing,” Alonso told NBC Sports Philadelphia during spring training.

That’s because the Phillies had earmarked that money for Kyle Schwarber, whom they re-signed for five years and $150 million the day before Alonso went to Baltimore.

Either-or, right?

No.

That makes no sense.

That’s because, in January, the Phillies offered Bo Bichette $200 million over seven years. He leveraged that offer into a three-year, $126 million deal with the Mets, which infuriated the Phillies but also made obvious the fact that Dombrowski had the money if he’d wanted to sign Alonso.

Alonso was 31, and, if he’d signed in Philly, he would have been 36 at the contract’s end. Bichette was 28 at the beginning of the 2026 season and would have been 35 at the contract’s end.

Alonso had made four consecutive All-Star teams, his Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in those seasons was 13.5 and his OPS was .838. Bichette’s WAR was 11.6 and his OPS was .786.

Yes, Harper would have had to move back to right field from first base, but if he’s no longer elite, as Dombrowski contended after 2025, then why should Harper be able to dictate what position he plays? Besides, if Harper, at 34, can play all 165 games (including playoffs) in 2026 at first base, right field, and designated hitter, then he could have played 120 in right, 20 at first, and 10 as DH, with a dozen games off.

Harper moved back to the outfield for the last two months of 2026 anyway, when Dombrowksi traded a pitching prosect for contact lefty Luis Arráez.

As for the money, well, Dombrowski gave 33-year-old right-handed free agent Adolis García $10 million for 67 games of .599 OPS. Who could have seen that coming? After all, Garcia’s OPS the previous two seasons was a whopping .675.

Would Alonso have been worth $20 million more?

Well, Alonso led the American League with 43 home runs and 113 RBI and had his best season since he was a rookie in 2019. Not only did he have a better year than Bichette, who was a massive disappointment, Alonso had a better year than every other Phillies hitter.

Whiff.

In June of 2024, Turner, arguably, was the worst shortstop in baseball, and inarguably, he was the worst shortstop for the money in baseball. That’s when I suggested he move to the outfield. Immediately. Put bench man Edmundo Sosa at second or move Bryson Stott over from second, just get Turner out of the infield before it was too late. He’d played some outfield in the past, he was just 31, and he was the best athlete on the team.

Nobody listened. Turner, prideful, didn’t want to do it. The Phillies laughed at the suggestion. In 2025, when Turner won the National League batting title and had his best defensive season in years, they laughed even harder.

» READ MORE: Hayes: Trea Turner is the Phillies’ biggest problem. He knows it: ‘A lot of that is on me.’

Who’s laughing now?

Turner in 2026 was again the worst defensive shortstop in baseball. After the Phillies exited the playoffs, Dombrowski called Turner back to Philadelphia from his home in Florida for a two-hour meeting to tell Turner that he had to win the shortstop job at spring training.

“I told him that is mandatory. I told him he cannot play shortstop like he did in 2026, going into 2027.”

Yes, well, I told them all 2½ years ago that Turner and the Phillies would be better off with him standing on grass rather than dirt.

Turner will be 34 in June.

Rest assured, by then he no longer will be the Phillies’ shortstop.

Ebenezer Scrooge blamed “a bit of undigested beef” for what he believes is the hallucination of the ghost of Jacob Marley.

Perhaps I suffered the same root of delirium when I endorsed the retention of a wild and shamed left-handed reliever.

In 2025, Alvarado was suspended for 80 games and the playoffs for using PEDs. He also finished the season injured. Nevertheless, Dobrowski picked up his $9 million option.

Which I cheered.

» READ MORE: Phillies wisely pick up José Alvarado’s option. They’d be wiser still to trade Nick Castellanos ASAP.

Yes.

Well.

Of the 86 pitchers who made at least 60 appearances, Alvarado ranked dead last with a 5.86 ERA and had the third-worst walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP) rate. The Phillies did not use him in the playoffs.

For an experienced pitcher with 100-mph stuff making $9 million, Alvarado was a huge bust.

So, shame on me.

But then, unlike Dombrowski, I’m not making millions of dollars to make mistakes like this.

Far greater shame on him.