A year ago, Dave Dombrowski sat before a microphone at Citizens Bank Park and had to appraise a Phillies team that won the National League East and crashed out in the NLDS to the Mets.
The culprits then were relatively clear: A 34-35 finish to the season, the lack of a fifth starter, trade-deadline deals that didn’t work out as planned, lots of talk about chase rates. The manager was in place, the roster was generally settled, so the Phillies would run it back, more or less, and hope.
A year later, the questions are the same, the volume louder. The Phillies again won the NL East. They again lost in the NLDS, this time to the Dodgers. And on Thursday, the Phillies’ president of baseball operations will face more or less the same questions.
The answers this time around cannot be the same.