'We don't need more stars.' Did Phillies rule out pursuing Juan Soto? The Andrew Painter plan

PHILADELPHIA − Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spent 45 minutes Tuesday answering questions about the team's early exit from the NL Division Series; what needs to change going forward; and why you might not see the Phillies adding another star player to a lineup that fizzled out over the second half of the season.

There is, of course, one star player who's eligible to become a free agent in November, who would solve many of the Phillies' hitting problems. He would at least serve as a marked upgrade over left fielder Brandon Marsh, who has yet to prove that he can hit left-handed pitching.

That's Yankees outfielder Juan Soto, who hit 41 homers, hit .288 and walked 129 times this season.

Getting Soto would certainly take the "stupid money" that Phillies owner John Middleton has been willing to spend over the years, beginning with $325 million for Bryce Harper and $300 million for Trea Turner, along with nine-figure contracts for Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos.

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You could probably start at about $500 million for a decade or more of Soto, especially considering that the Yankees would want to keep him, and the Mets will likely also be in the running. It should be noted that Soto is only turning 26 years old later this month.

Harper, Turner and Kyle Schwarber all played with Soto in Washington, where current Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long served in the same role.

So it's not out of the realm of possibility that Soto would at least consider the Phillies.

But Dombrowski seemed to rule out pursuing such a player on a team whose payroll approached $260 million this season, the third straight that the Phillies exceeded the luxury tax threshold.

"Well, I don't think we need to add more star players," Dombrowski said. "We have about as many stars as anybody in baseball ... (Team owner) John (Middleton) is very accommodating and giving, but you're also in a position where you're working with a payroll and trying to make things work for you going to the future.

"Would you be open to it? Yes. But I think you have to be careful because sometimes it's not only the star players, but also sometimes the supporting cast. We had eight All-Stars, right? That's more than anybody in baseball. So I don't necessarily think the answer is always the star player.

"I'm not saying we won't get one. But I don't think it's a necessity by any means."

Dombrowski mentioned the powerful lineup, led by Harper and Schwarber, that underachieved in the postseason, and really over the second half of the season when the Phillies finished 33-33 after starting off 62-34. And he also mentioned having four strong starting pitchers in Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez.

As Phillies manager Rob Thomson put it Tuesday after he was signed to a one-year extension through the 2026 season: "The roster is a championship roster. Now, we haven't gotten it done. I haven't gotten it done."

But don't expect the Phillies to stand pat, either, like they mostly did coming off their NLCS defeat in Game 7 last year. Here, Dombrowski might have to get creative.

“You’re looking to make your club better," Dombrowski said. "You’re not looking to be in a position to just change faces ... We just have to be open-minded to exploring what’s out there for us. Sometimes you trade good players for good players.”

That was the first of five takeaways from Dombrowski and Thomson's season-ending press conferences:

Phillies didn't get hot at the right time

The Phillies hit just .186 in the NLDS, and failed to score more than 2 runs in three of the four games. In addition, the bullpen imploded with 11.37 ERA in the four-game series.

So when asked what the missing piece was, Dombrowski said: "To me, the answer is not the missing piece. The answer is playing well at the right time."

Dombrowski mentioned that the starting pitchers pitched well enough, then said:

"Our bullpen didn't pitch well. It just didn't. That's the way it is. But I really thought going into the postseason that it was an incorrect judgment by me and by a lot of us, that our bullpen was (good). We didn't score enough runs. We just did not. We scored runs in one game (a 7-6 win in Game 2)."

Dombrowski said the Phillies' chase rate after bad pitches was lower than the Mets', but "they got the big hits and we didn't."

Added Thomson: "We ran into the hottest team in baseball."

Really, that was reminiscent of two years ago, when the Phillies rallied to make the playoffs after winning just 87 games, then advanced to Game 6 of the World Series. Each year, the Phillies record got better, but they exited one round earlier.

"It's hard to win," Dombrowski said. "You just have to be the club playing the best at the right time ... We have the talent to win. We didn't play very well in the postseason."

Changing the approach at the plate

Both Dombrowski and Thomson said the hitters became too pull-happy and got away from going the opposite way.

That's something they plan to emphasize in the offseason. Thomson said that Turner and Bryson Stott, in particular, don't need to worry as much about hitting home runs as they do about using the whole field and getting on base. Dombrowski said there are no plans to move Turner from shortstop, where he's average at best.

"I just think Stott's swing changed a little bit during the course of the year," Thomson said. "He's gotta get back to who he is, and that's grinding out pitchers, seeing a lo of pitches, using the other field, hitting line drives ... We need him to get on base and chew up pitches for the rest of the lineup."

Austin Hays blamed (sort of) after getting hurt

Dombrowski said he thought he solved the Phillies' final weakness by trading for right-handed hitting Austin Hays just before the trade deadline. With Marsh not hitting lefties well, the Phillies expected Hays to offset the Mets' three lefty starters in the NLDS.

Hays went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in two games in the NLDS. He was benched for Weston Wilson in Game 4.

Hays' troubles with the Phillies began when he went on the injured list a week after the trade with a bad hamstring. He then came back and missed most of September with a kidney infection and back issues. He returned for the final few games of the regular season, but never got into a rhythm.

"Unfortunately, Austin Hayes got hurt almost immediately," Dombrowski said. "We never really saw the real version of Austin Hays. So if you judge (the trade) on that, that was not very good. It didn't work out well for us."

The Andrew Painter − and possibly Taijuan Walker − fifth starter plan

The Phillies made it clear that if Taijuan Walker is going to be the fifth starter in 2025, he's going to have to earn it after pitching to a 7.10 ERA last season.

Walker just finished the second year of a 4-year, $72 million contract as the worst starting pitcher in baseball. So the chances are slim.

But that depends on 21-year-old phenom Andrew Painter, who only started pitching in games this month in the Arizona Fall League after having Tommy John surgery in August of 2023.

Dombrowski said the Phillies intend to limit Painter's innings in 2025, perhaps opening the door for Walker or someone else to serve as a fifth starter for part of the season.

"We need to figure out how many innings we'd feel comfortable for him to pitch next year, and then we need to have a plan in that regard," Dombrowski said. "Does he pitch at the minor-league level for a while, and then come up? Or does he pitch 2 or 3 innings in the beginning, and have more innings at the back end of the year?

"Or does he have a consistent number of innings all year long?"

Dombrowski mentioned it could be a situation like the Pirates had with phenom Paul Skenes, who began this season in the minors, then went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 133 innings after his call-up in May.

"But (Skenes) wasn't coming off an injury, either," Dombrowski added.

So don't expect Painter to throw as many innings as Skenes did. Either way, Painter will have a role next season − and Walker might, too.

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl, on Threads and Instagram @martinfrank1.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: 'We don't need more stars.' Did Phillies rule out pursuing Juan Soto? The Andrew Painter plan