I think the problem is the Phillies have behaved as if they had a chance to make the World Series for each of the last four seasons, and each year that they don't, they double down, which also comes at the expense of young players. And the unwillingness to exceed the cap also made it impossible to buy their way out of mistakes.
Which Dombrowski has already made his share of, some of them all his own and some them continuations from the previous regime. Last year it was some really bad pitching additions, the misevaluation of Howard, the mystifying two-year contract for Didi and a CF situation that remains unresolved this year. This year it looks to be defense and some very redundant roster construction and no starting pitching depth, though I'm sure the plan is to just ride out the first three months and then see if they are playing to just make the post-season, or more.
I still reckon they should have gone into more of a rebuild and who knows how close they actually came to that (remember when they had no GM, Wheeler was in trade rumors and it looked like JT might actually not get re-signed?).
But barring that, last year we wound up with a team that was willing to trot out Didi Gregorius, Torreyes/Galvis, Cutch and Trevor Jankowski as 50% of its primary starting 8. Granted, they didn't necessarily have the young players to fill all those holes - Stott wasn't ready, Kingery and Haseley were out, Vierling wasn't yet a consideration. But imagine if young players got the same leash as declining high-paid vets.
