John Middleton is going for it all with the Phillies, and he’s spending like he means it

CLEARWATER, Fla. — In a few days, before the first full-squad spring training workout, the billionaire owner of the Phillies will step into the center of the clubhouse and announce what amounts to an organizational mission statement.

“My goal,” John Middleton told The Inquirer this week in a wide-ranging interview from his office overlooking the field at BayCare Ballpark, “is that we create a team that, 100 years from now, when people ask the question, ‘What are the greatest teams in the history of baseball,’ the Phillies are in the conversation.”

OK, so Middleton knows how that probably sounds. In their 140-year existence, the Phillies have won a grand total of eight pennants and two World Series. That’s it. Yet here comes the proprietor of this franchise that only four months ago ended an 11-year postseason absence, and he’s aspiring to someday share a table with the Murderers’ Row Yankees and the Big Red Machine? Seriously?

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Sorry, but Middleton isn’t sorry. He always set lofty — maybe even unachievable — goals, first as a wrestler at Amherst College, then in business school at Harvard, and for his family’s tobacco company. He’s hypercompetitive, addicted as much to the pursuit of winning as he is to actually winning. And he views the Phillies as his most public legacy.

It helps to know those things before you ask Middleton why he’s outspending nearly every owner save the New York Mets’ Steve Cohen. Or why he has authorized more than $1 billion in free-agent signings since the 2018-19 offseason. Or why he consented last spring to push the payroll into luxury-tax territory for the first time in franchise history.

The Phillies were taxed $2,882,657 last year on a club-record $244,413,284 payroll, according to the Associated Press’ accounting. And after they came within two wins of a World Series title, Middleton green-lit an 11-year, $300 million contract for star shortstop Trea Turner, part of an offseason in which the Phillies shelled out more than $400 million — and that was before this week’s contract extensions for Seranthony Domínguez ($7.25 million) and José Alvarado ($22 million). Talks with Aaron Nola on a likely nine-figure extension may pick up in spring training.

The payroll is closing in on the second-tier $253 million luxury-tax threshold, trailing only the Mets, Yankees, and Padres, and jockeying in the deep end with the Dodgers and Blue Jays. But for Middleton, as ever, the bottom line goes beyond the bottom line, which explains why he keeps spending ... and spending ... and spending.

“How much money did the ‘27 Yankees make? Or the ‘29 A’s? Or the ‘75-76 Big Red Machine?” Middleton said. “Does anybody know? Does anybody care? Nobody knows or cares whether any of them made any money or not. And nobody cares about whether I make money or not. If my legacy is that I didn’t lose any money owning a baseball team on an annual operating basis, that’s a pretty sad legacy. It’s about putting trophies in the cases.

“If your ambition is to be good, you don’t make those decisions [to sign Turner]. If your ambition is to be great, you make those decisions. It’s about desire, really. I just want to win.”

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Middleton is bullish about the Phillies’ chances. He ponders the roster assembled by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and sees enough talent to be the best team in franchise history, especially, he says, if Nick Castellanos bounces back from a disappointing season and the young trio of Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, and Brandon Marsh continues to mature.

It won’t be easy in the loaded NL East. It never is. But with Cohen, the hedge-fund king and wealthiest man in baseball, pouring money into his team in New York and the Braves keeping much of their core in Atlanta with long-term contracts, Middleton maintains that the Phillies play in the most top-heavy division in baseball.

Still, he welcomes the challenge. Mention that the Braves and Mets won 101 games apiece last season, and Middleton asserts that the 87-win Phillies were like an object in your car’s side mirror: closer than they appear. After June 1, the Phillies went 66-46, keeping pace with the Mets (67-44) and inching closer to the Braves (78-34) before ousting them in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Middleton is respectful of the competition. He’s complimentary of Braves chairman Terry McGuirk, in particular.

“I like the way Terry competes. I really do,” Middleton said. “And it runs through his organization. If you beat the Braves, you haven’t just beaten a good team. You’ve beaten a terrific organization. Respect underlies all good rivalries. If you don’t have respect, you don’t have a rivalry. You have a feud.”

What, then, do the Phillies have with the Mets?

“I enjoy watching Steve do his thing,” Middleton said, laughing, “and then saying, ‘OK, I can do that. And I did this. Can you do what I just did?’”

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The reference, of course, was to the Mets’ failed attempt at signing free-agent slugger Carlos Correa after the Phillies locked up Turner. The sides agreed to a $315 million deal on Dec. 21, 12 days after the Phillies introduced Turner at Citizens Bank Park. But the Mets backed out two weeks later over concerns about Correa’s long-term health.

Even without Correa, the Mets’ payroll stands at approximately $382 million by some estimates, nearly $100 million more than the second-place Yankees.

Middleton stopped short of saying that he’s engaged in one-upmanship with Cohen “because we’re not going to do stupid things” in response to a move made by any other team. He‘s influenced more by the input he receives from Dombrowski. He trusts the future Hall of Fame executive implicitly, so when Dombrowski recommends signing Turner, for instance, Middleton asks one question.

“Dave can come and say, ‘This is a top-10 player in baseball. He’s the best shortstop. We need to sign him.’ And it’s, ‘OK, Dave, how can I help you sign him? What do I have to do?’” Middleton said. “And really, all I have to do is OK the money, you know?”

Easy for a billionaire to say.

Middleton maintains the Phillies would have made the same push for Turner if they had won the World Series — or even if they hadn’t turned around the season after firing manager Joe Girardi in June. And he barely blinks at the length of the contract. Turner is signed through 2033, when he will be 40. Bryce Harper will be 39 when his 13-year, $330 million deal expires after the 2031 season. Actuarially, extreme long-term deals come with enhanced risk.

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“But that’s what the market requires,” Middleton said. “People say, ‘Why are you doing that? That’s just stupid.’ Well, I did it because that’s what it took to sign the guy. If I had stopped it at seven or eight years, I wouldn’t have signed them. So, that’s your choice.

“And if you’re overpaying 10 years from now for an athletes who got you a couple, three World Series titles, I mean, what do I care? Seriously. What do I care? And I can guarantee that none of our fans would care.”

Middleton figures he has a good pulse on the paying customers. He routinely interacts with fans at Citizens Bank Park, walking through the concourse and often handing out upgraded tickets.

The owner’s attention to detail (he requested this week to replace a sign in the media dining room because it had a former name of BayCare Ballpark} and obsession with winning reminds manager Rob Thomson of George Steinbrenner.

“Just the competition level that he had was unheard of,” said Thomson, who worked for the Yankees before Steinbrenner’s death in 2010. “Our owner is very similar. He’s very competitive and he wants to win. He wants to have the best organization in the history of the game, and I respect that.”

It makes Middleton popular among players, too.

“John Middleton wants to win more than anything in the world,” Rhys Hoskins said. “You’ve seen that over the last couple years. We always have a chance to win.”

Said Kyle Schwarber: “You tip your cap to John, who, he went out there and said he wants to win. He put it out there for Dave to go out and put together a roster that he felt like was going to win.”

So, Middleton will have a captive audience when he delivers his message this week.

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“Do we become one of the greatest teams in baseball history? I don’t know,” Middleton said. “But I do know this: If that’s my goal, if we fail to achieve it, we’re still going to have much better Phillies teams on the field than if I simply say, ‘I’d like to be good, and maybe every four or five years we can make the postseason and every 15 years we can make the World Series.’ I don’t want that. I’ve got better things to do in my life than work toward that kind of a goal.

“The day I wake up and I’m not thinking about what we can do to make ourselves the best team in baseball history, I’m retiring. I’m walking away. I’m really not interested in anything else.”