Dave Dombrowski says the Phillies have an ‘open-minded’ offseason approach. What about revisiting a trade for Garrett Crochet?

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A few weeks into his fourth full offseason in charge of the Phillies’ baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski detects a difference in conversations with other teams.

“We’ve gotten more calls this year, when we’ve just kind of taken the general philosophy of ‘let’s see what happens,’” Dombrowski said Tuesday. “[Compared] to the last three years, I’ve gotten more calls already than I would have going into the winter meetings [in December]. There were people that say, ‘What about this guy? What about that guy?’ Just because we’re open-minded.

“It doesn’t mean you’re going to do anything per se, but we’re very open-minded in that regard. I think we need to be, from where we’ve been. We’re trying to get a little bit better.”

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The Phillies have improved over each of the last three regular seasons but taken one step back in the postseasons, from Game 6 of the World Series in 2022 to Game 7 of the NL Championship Series in 2023 to last month’s eyeblink exit in the divisional round.

Dombrowski believes the core of the roster is capable of winning it all. But rather than only filling what he described as “obvious” needs — an upgrade in the outfield, two late-inning relievers, and a back-end starter to place-hold for fast-approaching top prospect Andrew Painter — Dealer Dave wants his front office to “leave no stone unturned when you start talking to clubs.”

Could that include adding to a nearly set-in-stone starting rotation?

“We’ve got four starting pitchers that we like. I really don’t have a fifth starter right now,” Dombrowski said. “Painter will be that, eventually. I hope Taijuan Walker will be better, but as we’ve said, we’re not going to anoint him on that. We have some other arms that we like in the organization, but I can’t tell you they’re our fifth starter. So, I would say that we’re open-minded to be in a position where we’ll look at what we do with our starting rotation as well as other places to get better.”

Shortly before Dombrowski spoke those words, during a break in the general managers’ meetings at a golf club and resort in San Antonio, White Sox general manager Chris Getz talked about his ace, Garrett Crochet, who couldn’t be more available.

“I was very confident there was going to be plenty of interest, and I certainly was right,” Getz said. “It’s a long list of teams that have expressed interest, which is not surprising considering what he accomplished last year. He’s one of the best starters in the game.”

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The Phillies were among the teams that had interest in Crochet at the trade deadline in late July, just as they made a push to sign free agent Yoshinobu Yamamoto last winter. But a deal for Crochet was more complicated in the summer because of the 25-year-old lefty’s workload coming off elbow surgery and his unusual demand for a contract extension in exchange for consenting to pitch in the postseason.

It’s more straightforward now. There might even be a blueprint for it.

In March, before making history by losing 121 games, the White Sox dealt righty Dylan Cease, 28 and with two years of club control before free agency, to the Padres. The price: four minor league prospects, three of whom were ranked among San Diego’s top 10 by Baseball America.

Getz conceded that the Cease trade could provide a template for a deal involving Crochet, who also has two seasons left before free agency after posting a 3.58 ERA and 209 strikeouts in 146 innings last season.

“From a control standpoint, yes, and from a talent standpoint, yeah, I would agree that they’re similar in impact,” Getz said of Cease and Crochet. “Garrett, the success he had throughout the year, that was frontline-type stuff. So, in our minds, we’ve got a threshold. And it is nice to have something to work off of that wasn’t too long ago.”

The Phillies have balked at including Painter in any potential trades. Fifteen months after Tommy John elbow surgery, the 21-year-old is lighting up the Arizona Fall League. Seven of Dombrowski’s top front-office lieutenants have dropped in to watch him pitch and gushed in their reports. The kid is untouchable.

But to get Crochet, the Phillies would almost certainly have to budge on infielder Aidan Miller or center fielder Justin Crawford. Maybe both.

It would be a steep price. But at a time when hitting is as difficult as it has been in more than half a century — the league-average hitter in 2024 batted .243, tied for the lowest mark since 1968, the infamous “Year of the Pitcher,” which prompted MLB to lower the mound — the Phillies could swallow hard and add Crochet to Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez, and at some point next season, Painter.

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That’s what being open-minded is all about, especially for a team without an obvious need at a specific position and a three-year window to grab as many World Series as possible before Wheeler’s contract runs out.

“It’s more interesting in some ways because a lot of times you’re just saying, ‘OK, I need a shortstop,’ like a couple of years ago with Trea Turner, and boom, we’re going for him, and that’s it,” Dombrowski said. “Now, it’s not that there’s a specific need. You talk about the outfield, but other than that, well, what’s your specific need, positional player-wise? Well, there’s really not.

“Maybe ultimately it does come down to that, like, OK, we need a starting pitcher, let’s go [get] him. Maybe it does come down to that.”

In that case, put the White Sox on speed dial.