Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
LAS VEGAS — Dave Dombrowski had a “good conversation” with Bryce Harper since the end of the season, he said at the general managers meetings on Tuesday. Shortly after the Phillies were ousted from the National League Division Series by the Dodgers, controversy began to develop around Dombrowski’s comments about Harper’s 2025 season. At his postmortem press conference on Oct. 19, the Phillies president of baseball operations appeared to pose a public challenge to his star first baseman. Harper was coming off a down year by his standards after battling through a wrist injury for part of the season. His .487 slugging percentage and .844 OPS were his lowest since 2016. “He’s still an All-Star-caliber player,” Dombrowski said in October. “He didn’t have an elite season like he has had in the past. And I guess we only find out if he becomes elite [again] or he continues to be good. ... “Can he rise to the next level again? I don’t really know that answer. He’s the one that will dictate that more than anything else.” » READ MORE: Phillies 2026 outfield outlook: Free-agent options, prospect forecast, and more Dombrowski’s comments soon took on a life of their own, spurring rumors on social media and sports talk radio that the Phillies could be looking to trade Harper. Dombrowski clarified on the Foul Territory podcast on Oct. 23 that those rumors “couldn’t be further from the truth.” (Harper has 10-and-5 rights, and he can veto any trade anyway.) On Oct. 25, Harper told The Athletic that the trade talk made him “uncomfortable.” “I have given my all to Philly from the start,” he said. “Now there is trade talk? I made every effort to avoid this.” Harper added that he had not heard from Dombrowski nor Phillies owner John Middleton since the end of the season. But Dombrowski said Tuesday at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas where league executives have congregated this week that they have since connected. “I’ve spoken to him. We had a nice conversation, and everything went well,” Dombrowski said. Dombrowski declined to get into further specifics about what the conversation entailed. » READ MORE: GM meetings preview: Phillies free agents, the budget question, and is Nick Castellanos tradeable? “We had a good conversation,” he said. “Talked for quite a while, and really conversations between Bryce and myself are between us.” Dombrowski also reiterated that the Phillies are not planning to move Harper back to the outfield. Harper, who was moved to first base from right field after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022, has expressed a willingness in the past to return there if needed to open first base for a top free-agent bat. “He’s actually done that for a couple years now, and we really appreciate the aspect of it, but we really look at him as a first baseman at this time,” Dombrowski said. “I mean, I’m sure he could go out there, but he’s played first well. He’s a good first baseman, and continues to get better. We really like our club with him there, so I think he is more of our first baseman.” Coaching staff updates The Phillies announced Tuesday that Edwar Gonzalez was named assistant hitting coach, filling the vacancy left by Dustin Lind, who was hired as the Orioles’ lead hitting coach. Last season, Gonzalez served as the Phillies’ director of hitting development in the player development system. Before that, he was their assistant director of hitting development in 2024 and Latin America hitting coordinator and special adviser to international scouting in 2023. Gonzalez previously was an assistant hitting coach on the Marlins staff in 2022. “Very knowledgeable, hard working, bilingual, experienced,” Dombrowski said. “Then he came over there, got promoted from within our system. Everybody thinks the world of him as far as his knowledge, ability, communication skills and that, so we think he’ll fit in very well at the big league level.” The Phillies are also “still in discussions” about a new bench coach, a position that opened after Mike Calitri was moved to major-league field coordinator. “We’ve had the conversations with a few in general,” Dombrowski said.
