Former Marlins, Tigers and Red Sox baseball operations lead Dave Dombrowski has been regularly mentioned as a possible candidate for the Angels’ GM vacancy, but Dombrowski went on record with The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal to explain that he is committed to his current role with Music City Baseball and is not pursuing other opportunities in the sport.
Dombrowski, former D-backs GM Dave Stewart and Tony La Russa joined Music City Baseball, LLC back in July — an organization endeavoring to bring Major League Baseball to Nashville, Tenn. While La Russa was clearly open to other opportunities — he’s since been the surprise managerial pick of White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf — Dombrowski tells Rosenthal that he signed a four-year contract and has no plans to change course.
“I’m staying in Nashville,” Dombrowski plainly stated, adding that he made “…a commitment when I moved here that as we continue to pursue a new team — expansion, relocation or if it goes nowhere — that I would stay here with them.”
For now, the Nashville group will continue its efforts to bring a team to Tennessee and Dombrowski will remain a major part of that effort. It’s likely, per Rosenthal, that if Dombrowski’s group is ultimately able to succeed in bringing an expansion club to the city, that he would head up that new club’s baseball ops department. Of course, that’s a rather long-term goal that likely won’t come to fruition at any point in the immediate future, if at all. Dombrowski did leave the door open for him to explore new MLB opportunities before the end of his current contract if eventually “there’s nothing at the end of the road” and “we don’t have an organization” any longer.
It’s clear, though, that Dombrowski’s name can be removed from speculation surrounding not only the Angels but the Marlins, Phillies and, if a change is made in New York under new owner Steve Cohen, the Mets.