BALTIMORE -- Dave Dombrowski was chatting with a reporter in the left-field grandstand at Fenway Park before a recent game when a fan in a tour group stopped to thank him for putting together a likable Boston Red Sox team that, oh by the way, is contending for a playoff spot.
Dombrowski says he gets that a lot. Thursday marks one year since he was hired to run the Red Sox's baseball operations, and apparently, the honeymoon is not over. He claims to not look at Twitter or listen to talk radio, the outlets that give a voice, if not a name, to the loudest critics. But when he stops for his morning coffee or goes for a jog, he insists the reaction he gets has been largely positive.
It's not that everything Dombrowski has touched has turned to gold. Far from it. He persuaded principal owner John Henry to spend $217 million on free-agent left-hander David Price, and Price has a 4.29 ERA that ranks only slightly better than the league average of 4.47. He traded four prospects for closer Craig Kimbrel, who is having the worst statistical season of his career. And he drew criticism last month for dealing touted 18-year-old pitching prospect Anderson Espinoza to the San Diego Padres for largely unproven lefty Drew Pomeranz.
But with a group of young All-Stars -- shortstop Xander Bogaerts, center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and MVP candidate right fielder Mookie Betts -- who were drafted or signed mostly by former general manager Theo Epstein and developed under his successor, Ben Cherington, the Red Sox are enjoyable to watch again. And Dombrowski's moves have put them in position to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2013 World Series championship.
"People are usually pretty friendly," Dombrowski said. "Somebody might say, 'This guy's a bum. Why did you get him?' But most people are welcoming. They say, 'Hey, I really like the club. Appreciate what you've done.' That's more the comments."
Dombrowski, 60, brought strong credentials with him to the Red Sox. He built winning teams in Montreal in the late-1980s, took over the expansion Florida Marlins in 1992 and led them to a World Series title in only their fifth year in existence and turned the Detroit Tigers from a 106-loss laughingstock in 2002 to a five-time playoff team and a two-time AL pennant winner.
It didn't take long, though, for Dombrowski to realize that Boston is unlike any place he has worked. The Red Sox are an institution, a passion and a soap opera rolled into one. It has been said that the Sox don't play a 162-game season so much as they play 162 one-game seasons. The daily scrutiny heightens what already is an unforgiving eight-month grind from the beginning of spring training through the season finale.
"I think probably the daily aspect that goes into every game that you play is somewhat unique here," Dombrowski said. "It's very emotional. If you win, you're the greatest. If you lose, you're not really good. And I think you really have to work on keeping an even-keel perspective in some ways. You're not going to change that emotion, but when you work with the team, you need to realize that if a guy has a bad outing, it doesn't mean he's a bad pitcher. If a guy's in a 1-for-27 slump, it doesn't mean he's never going to hit again.
"It can be grueling in every market, but it gets more attention here. I think that's been the biggest difference for me."
Indeed, it can take time to get comfortable in Boston. And if Dombrowski feels that way, he can only imagine what it must be like for the players.
Take Price, who hasn't pitched to his or anyone's expectations. Despite leading the league in innings (163⅔) and ranking third in strikeouts (167) when the week began, he also has allowed at least five earned runs in six starts, and the Red Sox are only 12-13 when he takes the ball.
But leave it to agent Scott Boras, who doesn't represent Price, to put the ace's struggles into perspective. During a recent series at Angel Stadium, Boras remarked to Dombrowski that Price looked like himself the night before in shutting out the Los Angeles Angels for eight innings of an eventual 2-1 loss.
"He was saying, 'Gee, Dave, Price was great. His changeup was fantastic,'" Dombrowski recalled. "I said, 'Yeah, he's finally starting to find it.' And he says, 'Dave, remember' -- now, this is Scott saying this -- 'those first three, four months for a free agent, a big name, is tough. A lot of times they don't find their ground right away.'
"I do think that happens, and maybe even a little more so here [in Boston]."
Several months ago, Dombrowski and his wife, Karie, bought a six-bedroom house in Brookline, Massachusetts (Epstein's hometown, coincidentally). But with their son and daughter going to school in Michigan, they didn't move in until mid-July, leaving Dombrowski to live in a hotel a few blocks from Fenway.
The solitude gave him a chance to immerse himself in his work. Initially, that meant getting acquainted with as many people as possible in the front office. Dombrowski promoted Mike Hazen to general manager, retained embattled manager John Farrell after his battle with cancer and kept most of the baseball operations staff that worked under Cherington, decisions that fostered continuity. He also enlisted longtime aide Frank Wren to work at his side again.
In building the roster, Dombrowski acted swiftly and decisively. Last winter, he identified three primary needs -- an ace starter, power-armed late-inning reliever and reserve outfielder -- and acquired Price, Kimbrel and Chris Young during a 25-day span in November and December. Last month, he made three trades in eight days, beefing up the bench with righty-hitting infielder Aaron Hill, the bullpen with right-hander Brad Ziegler, and the starting rotation with Pomeranz.
Dombrowski could have gone for broke, too, in the final season for retiring franchise icon David Ortiz. But contrary to his reputation for tearing apart a farm system in the interest of winning now, he stuck with top prospect Yoan Moncada, prized pitcher Michael Kopech, touted third baseman Rafael Devers and 2015 first-round pick Andrew Benintendi, who has emerged as the everyday left fielder after getting called up two weeks ago.
"I have the utmost respect for David Ortiz, but you wouldn't do something to hurt your franchise in the long run if you didn't think it was the right thing to do. You just wouldn't do that," Dombrowski said. "And [Ortiz] wouldn't ask you to do that. He wants to win, but it's also within reason.
"A couple of times when we talked, he would say, 'What about this guy?' And I said, 'Well, this is what they want,' and he said, 'Oh, I would never make that trade.' That type of thing."
Perhaps most significant, Dombrowski established a culture of accountability by empowering Farrell to make lineup decisions based on merit, not contracts. After being outplayed in spring training, $95 million third baseman Pablo Sandoval and $72.5 million outfielder Rusney Castillo began the season on the bench. Castillo later was outrighted off the 40-man roster and buried in Triple-A.
Now, though, with the non-waiver trade deadline having passed, Dombrowski's heaviest lifting is finished. It will be up to the players to emerge from a three-way fight with the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays for the AL East crown or a wild-card berth. And generally speaking, Dombrowski said he is satisfied that the moves he has made will put them in position to do so.
"I think so," he said. "People forget, we didn't have winning records the last couple of years. We're in a whole different spot. We're in a pennant race. Now, I don't know if we're going to win or not. But we're in the race, and that's what you try to do every year. I like our club. I think we have a real shot.
"But I think when you say that, the results of how we perform on the field is how other people will look at what we've done. We've got a good team. How good we'll be will be determined."
For now, the lion's share of the criticism has centered on Farrell, whose job security is a daily topic of conversation. But if the Red Sox prove to not be good enough, Dombrowski knows he will hear it, too. Some of the biggest admirers in his neighborhood coffee shop are liable to become less friendly.
"I think it's great. I love the passion," Dombrowski said. "This is what baseball's all about. It's a daily passion here. It's a very enjoyable experience and for somebody who's spent their whole life in baseball.
"This is what you strive to be part of."