OCTOBER 24: Friedman will earn a record-setting $35MM over a five-year term, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports via Twitter. The contract also includes incentive mechanisms, per Olney.
OCTOBER 14: The Rays and Dodgers have announced the franchise-altering news that Andrew Friedman will be leaving his role as GM of the Rays to become the new president of baseball operations for the Dodgers. Now-former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti will remain in the organization as an adviser to president Stan Kasten, while Rays president Matthew Silverman will now oversee baseball operations in St. Petersburg. Former VP of business operations Brian Auld will now fill Silverman’s former role of president.
In a prepared statement, Friedman had the following to say about his time with the Rays:
“As I embark upon my next journey, I have only thanks and gratitude to the Rays organization and the Tampa Bay region for a wonderful 10 years together. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to have been part of something so special and for the passion and support of this exceptional fan base. The Rays organization is loaded with talent from ownership to players and everyone between. We were able to create together an unbelievable culture that no doubt will continue, and I am absolutely confident that the successes we achieved will continue into the future.”
Clearly, the move comes as a significant blow to the Rays, who will lose one of the most respected baseball executives in the entire game. And, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets, Friedman worked for the Rays without a contract, so there will be no compensation heading to the Rays from the Dodgers. Friedman is considered by many to be a wizard of sorts, turning the low-budget Rays into a perennial contender despite low revenue stemming from attendance issues and a dilapidated stadium. The Rays have only twice had a payroll over $70MM in Friedman’s tenure, so even amid reports that the Dodgers will scale back spending, to an extent, Friedman should have significantly more than double 2014’s Rays franchise-record $76MM payroll.
Friedman’s work with a modest payroll has garnered limitless praise from peers and pundits alike. Some of the 37-year-old Tulane grad’s most recognizable moves include a pair of extensions for Evan Longoria (the most recent of which guarantees him $100MM over six years); acquiring Ben Zobrist for Aubrey Huff and eventually signing him to a four-year, $18MM extension with two club options; the acquisition of Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett for Delmon Young; signing Matt Moore to a five-year, $14MM contract with three club options; signing Chris Archer to a five-year, $20MM extension; and acquiring Wil Myers and Jake Odorizzi in exchange for James Shields and Wade Davis. (For a full list of Friedman’s moves while with the Rays, check out MLBTR’s Transaction Tracker.)
Incredibly, Friedman’s hiring and the reassignment of Colletti means that four of the five teams in the National League West have made a GM change in a five-month span. The Padres dismissed Josh Byrnes late in June, and the D’Backs dismissed Kevin Towers in September. Dan O’Dowd resigned from the Rockies last week after declining an extension offer (Jeff Bridich was named the team’s new GM), and now Friedman has a new role in a new organization at Colletti’s expense.
Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times recently noted that Colletti’s job was in peril and reported that Friedman was the team’s top target as a replacement. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that the two sides have been talking “for weeks,” adding that negotiations predate the Dodgers’ disappointing exit from the National League Division Series at the hands of the Cardinals.
Topkin first reported that Friedman was leaving and Silverman would oversee Rays baseball operations (Twitter link). Sherman tweeted that Friedman would be the Dodgers’ new GM. ESPN Los Angeles’ Ramona Shelburne reported that Colletti would remain with the Dodgers as an adviser (Twitter link). Topkin tweeted that Auld would be the new Rays president.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Well then…did NOT see this coming! Great move by the Dodgers. Tampa Bay will miss him, no doubt.
Honestly, this might be the end of the TB Rays. If Silverman can’t be the next AF, you’re going to see some really bad teams coming…and the Rays possibly leaving.
Yup, it’s incredible to see Friedman’s acquired so many quality Major League prospects from the guys he’s traded. You’d expect a few busts here or there but his success rate with trades is pretty high.
Montreal is in tears for Tampa. Where exactly would mlb move the Rays that would provide anything but another small market?
They don’t need to move. They just need a new stadium. Maybe that would bring people to the ballpark. Its a classic case of What Comes First, The Chicken Or The Egg.
That said, Las Vegas would be a good landing spot. Plenty of space to build a new ballpark there.
Ownership will likely need to pony up the funds for a.stadium. I don’t think the climate favors tax funding. It doesn’t bode well that they haven’t drawn well with a winning team. I honestly think there is something going on with the Florida market. Not sure what it is…its not just the shaky stadiums or Loria in Miami. Reminds me of a.similar situation in AZ…hard to build a fan base in an environment of a lot of people who have relocated and retained their loyalties
Kenneth Andrew Friedman showed to be a great strategist.
Honestly kind of sad about this, especially for the Rays organization. The Dodgers are definitely getting a good one, I guess we’ll find out soon if he deals well with a large payroll.
Andrew Friedman with unlimited funds? Look out!
Good luck to Mr. Friedman, but he’s not going to have the dozens of first round picks he accumulated in Tampa. Before they changed FA compensation Friedman had 12 of the first 89 picks of the 2011 draft. He won’t be seeing that again.
It’s going to be interesting to see what he ends up doing with Crawford/Ethier/Kemp/Puig/Pederson.
When the rays drafted well, they were doing so in late rounds also. But ya his recent drafts, weren’t that special.
They compensated quality with quantity.
…And not one of those guys from that 2011 draft have made the big leagues.
Why did they get all those picks?
Because of Type A and Type B FA compensation like you pointed out above.
Sometimes they would get two picks for one guy and one pick could be another team’s first rounder. Now you get one pick in the compensation round. He’s not going to be getting the types of picks he did in TB.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe he’s one of the best GM’s in the game.
I still don’t get what your point is. Its not as if the MLB made special rules for the Rays to get extra picks. If they had a A type free agent, they got 2 picks just like everyone else. If they had a B type free agent, they got 1 pick just like everyone else. That record draft class was just Friedman brillantly manipulating the rules.
Even with those first round picks, its not as if Friedman was doing great in the draft. The Rays had 22 first round picks when Friedman was the GM. Only 3 have reached the Majors: Price, Longoria, and Tim Beckham.
While Price and Longoria were/are huge pieces, Friedman’s success hasn’t been from a gluttony of first round pick as you seem to suggest.
/Van Slyke
The Dodgers have projected payrolls of 200 million at least from 2015-2018 just with the guys under current team control. I’m thinking they will still spend but are looking for Friedman to pull off some of his frugal magic.
Oh god…
Game changer.
Will be very interesting to see what he can do. Have to think some of those outfielders will be shipped out this winter.
They need to face the fact that they are going to need to eat some cash and realize no one is going to trade the farm for Crawford or Ethier. I have a hard time seeing them moving Kemp or Puig in particular.
Right, but they are paying their contract to sit on the bench. Ethier and Crawford are still decent players. Crawford especially, if you knocked it down to $15MM for the last 3 years, I think you would be able to make a pretty good trade, and get several decent prospects back.
Agree. I think the big difference we will see with Friedman, versus Colleti, is his ability to evaluate talent better and be more creative. Colleti was so infatuated with veterans and seemed to get enamored with players’ track records instead of the player they currently were.
Friedman seems good at understanding a player’s current value and their value going forward. He signed guys like Longoria, Matt Moore and Chris Archer to very good deals early in their careers. He traded guys like Garza and Shields for some good value while their values were still high.
I am interested to see how Friedman shuffles the rosters and what trades and/or free agent signings he makes.
Should be an interesting offseason for Dodgers fans.
I agree with that, I just don’t think the Dodgers can bank on a great return. But who knows, look at what the Angels were willing to give up when They took on Vernon Wells and all of that contract.
I think you can get a decent return for Ethier IF you eat most of the money. Remember, Colleti signed Ethier to that huge extension so he may have been reluctant to doing that and, thereby, admitting he messed up on giving Ethier that extension.
Friedman can trade Ethier, while eating most of the money, and it will be looked at as just cleaning up the mistakes of the prior regime.
Wells was also coming off of a pretty good (not really good but good) 2010 season where he hit 31 HR. The Halos had also just ended a miserable 2010 season themselves where they lost their two biggest bats, one to free agency prior to the season, and another to a career threatening injury. The point I’m trying to make here is if there is a place for someone like Crawford or Ethier to go, it’s a team that is in a similar boat and expects to contend in 2015. Perhaps the Blue Jays?
If you guys were willing to eat 90% of that contract to get to what he’s been worth the last 2 years, it’d be a wonderful trade.
Crawford came back to close to his previous strength last season. I don’t see the Dodgers being very interested in moving him now that he’s finally useful. Ethier is going almost for certain. If they cut his price down to around $5M a year they will have takers.
Crawford still goes on the DL at least 2-3 times a season, his value might be at an all time high since his last season in Tampa. Why wouldn’t you want to trade him?
Not really. The last time he was on the DL was a result of a freaky in-game ankle twist. So maybe he’s accident prone? The reason I would not want to trade him is because he’s been really good, and would be difficult to replace. His market value interests me not at all.
Why wouldn’t his market value interest you when the Dodgers have a surplus of outfielders? He hasn’t played more than 130 games since 2010, with his last two years totalling 106 & 116 GP respectively. I get that his bat finally turned around this year, but he hasn’t broken 3 fWAR since he was with the Rays (although 2013 he put up a 2.9 fWAR) and even his SB/Games played is down 10% – 18% from his time with TB. One would think that if anyone would be traded it would be the guy Friedman let walk in free agency, although admittedly, the Rays budget had plenty to do with that decision. Either way, I’d think Crawford is a prime candidate to be traded by AF, given their surplus of OFers, his contract, and his market value.
My only interest is in fielding the best possible team. Imagine that. Which, incidentally, calls for trading away the least useful player. Clearly that is not Crawford.
Nice tone. Imagine Crawford regreses back to 2012-2013 form. Who’s the least useful outfielder then? There’s really no need to be defensive, it’s not as if I was rude or dumbfounded by your position. Simply asking a question.
There was no “tone” to my response. It was completely straightforward and factual. Imagine he doesn’t regress. Imagine that he’s recovered from the injuries that ruined two seasons, which is what last year’s performance suggests. The very same argument was made all summer for Kemp. If you listened to posters here, he had to be thrown overboard and at the very moment he was beginning to play healthy again. Makes no sense. The Dodgers, like any other team, will take these situation year by year, if not month by month.
Accident prone? I guess the patch of dirt in the outfield that caused him to hurt his ankle could be considered an accident but like the guy said below, he’s not played more than 130 games since 2010.
Crawford’s value is at an all time high since signing that albatross of a contract, guys who are injury prone tend not to stay healthy as they age into their mid 30’s.
I presume you know why Crawford has played so few games. Or maybe not, it’s hard to guess. Again, if Crawford’s value is “at an all time high” now then this is the only real argument needed against trading him. We heard the same arguments all summer for why the Dodgers just had to trade Kemp for a bag of bats when he was just on the verge of recovering from his two major injuries. I suppose he’s worth at least two bags of bats now.
You don’t seem to understand that the other outfielders have almost no value what so ever. Kemp needs to be a DH in the AL and I’d love to see him continue to be the player he was the second half of this season next year but chances are that was just him offsetting the poor start he had because he isn’t that bad of a player. Eithier had a horrible season, he’s turning 33 next year and who knows if this guy will ever be able to hit 20 homers again.
Scott Van Slyke should be in the everyday lineup next year. With Puig and Kemp looking to take the other two spots, you don’t need Crawford or Eithier on your bench making a combined $40M+ to provide limited value.
Wrong on almost all points. Eithier will be traded because he simply has no role on the team anymore, especially with the resurgence of Crawford and Kemp. Those two won’t be replaced unless they Dodgers have better solutions in mind at those positions. Any suggestions to fill that criterion? I doubt it. No, not Van Slyke. And at this point, no, not Joc Pederson.
I don’t care how much they make. I will let the team management worry about that part of running the Dodgers.
The Dodgers are not going to trade away players just to make the team cheaper. Even with the changes in the front office, ownership has always been all about making the team better. Since you don’t know that much, it seems I understand a lot more than you do.
Eithier has negative value, I see Ryan Howard being traded before Eithier and the Dodgers would have to eat ALL of his salary to get rid of him. He provided -0.0WAR this year, nobody would trade for him with him making $18M a year.
No team wants to eat $50M to get rid of someone for nothing. The Dodgers having an unlimited payroll won’t change that. I don’t see how you don’t see that.
Van Slyke had nearly 3.0WAR in a limited role last season and destroys LHP, he should be an everyday player or at the very least become the 4th outfielder. Not the 5th outfielder. Providing 3.8WAR over the last two seasons(151GP/398PA) should make you an everyday player.
Of course his value isn’t negative. These days a journeyman is good for $4-5m a year. He’d find a new home for that kind of discount. WAR is a useless stat.
“WAR is a useless stat.”
I don’t think so.
Only in the real world.
Yup, sabermetrics are the devil!
That’s exactly what I said, obviously.
Pretty much, I don’t see how it isn’t. You don’t have any facts backing up your argument unless you want to go back to 1995 and tell me he had so many RBIS and few errors fielding.
Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean anything.
Continue thinking having a $40M bench creates a positive clubhouse atmosphere. Guys who make that kind of money are resented by anyone coming up who’s capable of outproducing them.
I never said I thought that, so continuing to think it is kind of unlikely.
“Eithier will be traded because he simply has no role on the team anymore, especially with the resurgence of Crawford and Kemp. Those two won’t be replaced unless they Dodgers have better solutions in mind at those positions. Any suggestions to fill that criterion? I doubt it. No, not Van Slyke. And at this point, no, not Joc Pederson.
I don’t care how much they make. I will let the team management worry about that part of running the Dodgers.”
^ You saying Andre Eithier will be traded is extremely unlikely meaning if you have it your way, the Dodgers keep their Kemp, Eithier, Puig, Crawford, Van Slyke, log jam with nobody of that group capable of actually playing good defense in center field.
Joc will never amount to anything with guys being forced to play over him due to immovable contracts. He needs to see MLB pitching and where in the world is he going to see that on this team? This team has easily become the Yankees of the N.L.
No, that is what you said, not what I said. No logjam without Ethier. The outfield the Dodgers finished with last year appears again next year, with Van Slyke as the fourth outfielder and at 1B for Gonzales once a week or so. Nobody on this team currently plays CF better than Puig or has more potential to be excellent at that position, and that includes Pederson. He may never amount to anything, period, and the Dodgers are unlikely to risk the season on him. All contracts are movable, at the right discount. Eithier’s will be steep, but he will move. He could be released if necessary but I doubt they will have to do that. No, the Dodgers are not and aren’t going to become the Yankees. They protected all the top prospects other teams coveted as the price for temporary solutions. This is called rebuilding the farm system. So, basically no. On everything.
I quoted what you said, so I don’t know what you’re insinuating, also defensive metrics don’t like Puig at Center, so you’re wrong yet again. The Dodgers are becoming the Yankees because they don’t give their position player prospects time to adjust Major League pitching. Imagine if the Giants gave up on Willy Mays after his first 2 weeks in the Majors? No to everything? Okay, stop replying to me then.
You seem to like your comments, I don’t see anyone else thinking Crawford is going to turn the clock back and steal 50 bags next year, like he was expected to when he signed with Boston. He’ll never live up to that contract, especially if he regresses back to 2011-2012 Carl Crawford, there aren’t many position guys who suddenly turn back the clock in their mid 30’s.
I do like my comments, but you seem to love your own. Crawford doesn’t need to steal 50 bases to be difficult to replace. The 35+ rate he was on last season will do very nicely, thank you. Whether he “lives up to his contract” is of course totally irrelevant to the actual game of baseball and your prediction that he will regress is completely arbitrary. Defensive metrics are a mess, and you can’t even seem to take your own advice. This was Puig’s first season in CF but apparently in his case it isn’t worth the effort to give him any time to adjust to it, despite all his natural gifts for playing it as well as anyone in baseball.
35+ steals? He has to play an entire season for that to happen. Doubt it. Name one guy who miraculously played an entire season after not playing more than 120 games in 4 years?
My own advice? What are you on? It sounds like your just saying things without knowing what the context is to say it, I said I would want to have him traded because his value is at a high meaning someone would likely take him on without eating any of that $20M+ owned for the next 3 years. He’ll never live up to that contract if he regresses next year, which by the way is a pretty good chance of happening.
The Dodgers don’t need someone to learn a new position, if they want to make the World Series, which any team with a $250M payroll should as they’re outspending most teams by nearly 3 times, they need to start prioritizing things properly. Why do you think Friedman was brought in?
uzeguyz are arguing about the same thing. mostly.
Blue Sky LA is content having Crawford as the everyday LF’er and Jaysfan is not. I’m guessing Jaysfan is a Blue Jays fan. And for that, I’m sorry.
He wants Crawford on the team for the next 3 years despite his inability to stay healthy, he’d rather have him at $20M a season while guys like Van Slyke rot on the bench posting 3WAR in half a season worth of ABS. He thinks someone is willing to take a 0.0WAR player in Andre Eithier. I don’t see anyone taking Eithier and he thinks different of that.
Basically the argument is, I believe Eithier can’t be traded without eating all of his contract. I don’t see it happening meaning the Dodgers outfield jam where nobody can actually play good center field defense will continue.
Yeah, I feel bad for being a Jays fan too.
“listen to the money talk”…
Kiss it Goodbye Smalls!!!!! Coming from a Rays fan 🙁
Lets hope he brings along Joe Maddon
That’s certainly a possibility.
Wouldnt that be something..
Friedman will be like a kid in the candy store. Able to make moves without cash being an issue. Can’t blame him one bit. Look out for Dodger Blue!
Now we shall see how a small market GM does with a large market. (I know he’s not the GM, but still, he’ll be making some moves).
The ace of the staff loses two games for the Dodgers, so the GM gets fired. Makes no sense.
Four games if you can’t last season
Count
Ethier, Wilson and League deals and acquiring Crawford and Beckett did not help
Crawford, Beckett and Gonzales was the top brass’ idea they wanted to get relevant quick, and they did, Its more Either, Wilson and Kemp even though McCourts idea.
From what I’ve seen its top brass unhappy with the contracts Ned gave out at Franks orders, still doesn’t make sense but nothing to do with CK, we all know that.
Has nothing to do with Kershaw. Colletti couldn’t assemble a reliable bullpen and his midseason rotation reinforcements (Correia, Hernandez) hurt more than helped. Darwin Barney has a great glove but the fact he was the biggest acquisition for the Dodgers (when there were other glaring needs) at the dealine is disappointing.
Take the Moneyball movie. Replace Billy Beane and the Red Sox with Andrew Friedman and the Dodgers. I guess he’s not that caught in the middle.
Or, just make a new one called Moneyball 2
Hopefully they bring up David Price, James Shields, and Matt Garza…I don’t want to hear how Sean Rodriguez was the only reason they were winning!
“But Sean Rodriguez gets on base and can play first base Joe!”
Not only did the Dodgers just pick up one of the better GMs in baseball, but they are now giving him almost unlimited resources to win. Watch out NL!
Stunned is my reaction. Never thought he’d leave the team this early. He’ll probably take Maddon with him now too. As angry as I want to be, its hard when AF did so much for us and put baseball back on the map in Tampa Bay. Farewell Friedman, thanks for the memories
Problem is, fans didn’t/don’t fill the seats.
Ned built a weird team, but it still was one of the best in baseball, with a top-5 rotation, and lineup. They also have a few very interesting prospects. I’m not sure what he will really improve.
Wow, I’m in shock. Mostly because he said, “exceptional fan base”
I hear that both of them are really good people.
Both are deaf from the cowbell though so they don’t talk.
They brought that gimmick in so that the crowd sounds larger than it actually is and it’s emptiness wouldn’t seem so depressing.
I know he’s great without cash, but I wonder if having cash will help him or hurt him; it’s easier to make stupid moves when you have that much money. (I’m sure he’ll be fine.)
Bet the Dodgers are paying him pretty well.
Really sad for the Rays. A great GM like Friedman doesn’t do it without a great team surrounding him. Hopefully the Rays can still keep most of it together and continue to build on what they’ve been doing.
Well the Dbacks (as a Dbacks fan) are done for quite a while now.
I’m not a Dbacks fan but Larussa always wins so keep that towel close.
We are 3 years away from a salary cap in the MLB, and less than that away from a Dodgers World Series win.
The MLBPA won’t allow a salary cap. Especially with the huge influx of money in the form of new TV deals (both actual and anticipated) in recent years.
I think salary caps are ridiculous anyways, the NBA and NFL owners make such a ridiculous amount of money. The players who make the league(s) what it is don’t get paid as much as they should be getting paid.
Agreed. Pretty sure I read a report last year that claimed Goodell made something in the range of 35-40 million dollars. I don’t even want to know what David Stern made before he left office.
Here are 10 priorities I see:
1. Trade Ethier and/or Crawford
2. Sign a couple relievers
3. Kick Wilson to the curb and eat the $$$
4. Find a shortstop
5. Sign another starting pitcher
6. Lock up Greinke past 2015
7. Figure out why the Cards are Kershaw’s daddy
8. Don’t trade Pederson, Urias, or Seager
9. Seriously evaluate whether Mattingly is the right guy to lead this group
10. Continue building the farm system
As a Dodgers fan, I’m excited about the news, but Friedman has a LOT of work to do on this roster.
I think it’s pretty obvious Kershaw is tipping a pitch out of the stretch. He always mows down the Cardinals until they get him to the stretch early in an inning.
Agree with your list in an ideal world. It’s going to be extremely hard to trade Ethier or Crawford. They are both bums that are extremely overpaid and aging. It will be interesting to see if he’s able to move them. Dee Gordon can play short if you move Guerrero up from the minors. It will be interesting to see how AF balances winning now with building a solid core of young players in the minors for the future. Seems the owners want to win now whereas AF’s Tampa Bay model was a more long-term approach.
Check the book on Crawford’s season before you say nobody will want him. Also have a look at Gordon’s work at SS. He wasn’t moved from that position for no good reason. Also take a look at Guerrero’s progress with learning to play 2B. Then start your analysis over.
Thanks for the condescending tone. Crawford had his best season since 2010….but it still wasn’t good and nobody is going to want to pay him his enormous contract for his lackluster performance in his declining years so get out of your dream world. If the club didn’t think Guerrero was a big league 2nd baseman and that dee couldn’t play short then why sign Guerrero at all? you are way better off having Gordon at SS than Hanley Ramirez any day. Making that switch already improves your defense even if it is only a slight improvement and at no extra cost.
The club signed Guerrero before they knew Gordon would be a fit at second. Before this season Gordon was terrible on both sides of the ball. I see Guerrero as more of a utility guy that can handle second and the corner outfield spots.
Sorry for not knowing how to say you are just plain wrong in a kinder way. Again, look at the season book on Crawford (.300/.339/.429/.767). Look especially at the last month (.439/.466/.712/1.178). You are calling this lackluster? Most teams would go head over heals for a line like that, especially if you add in the speed, which is finally returning (23 steals in only 105 games). So what if he isn’t cost effective? Why any supposed baseball fan thinks this is the point of the game is beyond me.
The Dodgers signed Guerrero (a SS in Cuba) with the idea of converting him to 2B because they did not think they had a 2B in Gordon. Converting Gordon to 2B was his last chance to stick in the majors, because his work at SS was awful. (No better than Hanley, who is a free agent anyway, and almost certainly not coming back to the Dodgers.) Gordon’s successful conversion exceeded everyone’s expectations. Guerrero’s conversion to 2B did not go well in the minors, and was set back by the bizarre ear biting injury.
All of this you’d know already if you actually followed this team.
Again, look at the book. The Dodgers will pay his contract. The answers to your other questions are also completely on the record.
You forgot one last thing kick AJ Ellis out the door. Get a catcher
SS and catcher are tough positions to fill, especially if he wants to hang on to key pieces on the farm. No doubt there are underrated players in the mid and high minors for other teams. But now rather than needy teams coming to him and being able to get huge hauls back, he is needy.
Maybe he had that magic with limited money and now that he has the triple of that amount maybe he won’t succeed. That happens!
This is big. LA might just win a World Series in the next 5 years because of this.
Any mlb team might win a world series in the next 5 years.
True, but this move puts LA in a better position to do so. Friedman might be the best GM not named Beane or Epstein.
And Beane would be the best of the bunch by default, being the only GM in the group.
Eh, fair enough. Clearly, today is not my best analyzing day.
Not with 2 Wild Cards now. The most dangerous teams in October are often that team that sneaks in there that few see coming. Of all teams, the Kansas City Royals… Kansas.City.Royals… are undefeated in the playoffs against what have been considered the three best teams in MLB in 2014.
Nothing had changed…the initial wild card had the same momentum effect. Adding a single play in game only makes it more random. In a world where the regular season really matters…. The Dodgers at minimum make the NLCS in the previous format.
Under the previous format the Giants and Pirates would’ve still played a 1 game playoff as they finished with the same record, so your last point in invalid.
Still makes it random, even though I suppose you’d still have the odd one game playoff in a four division format.
Ah, now I see what you were saying in your original comment. My reply is actually off, as i misinterpreted what you were saying. My apologies.
Ironically, I’d say the A’s are very unlikely to win the WS in the next 5 years.
Some mlb team will win the world series in each of the next 5 years.
. . . except for the Phillies. 😉
Trade prediction: Dodgers trade Andre Ethier + a LOT of cash to TB for Jeremy Hellickson. Makes sense for both teams: Rays need an everyday veteran LF to go with Jennings and Myers, and have a surplus of starting pitching. Dodgers need a #4/#5 to slot behind Kershaw, Greinke, and Ryu (with Beckett retiring and Haren probably leaving via free agency) and have a glut of OF’s. And now that there’s a “connection”, it’s more likely to happen.
Haren owns a vested option for 2015 so he is likely staying with the Dodgers. Trading Ethier for a starter does make sense though.
Possible Dodger Outfielder destination: Cincinnati Reds. The Reds need a LF in the worst way and have a surplus of good pitching to return to the Dodgers. I don’t see the Reds trading for the likes of Crawford or Kemp but maybe a deal gets worked out for Ethier if the Dodgers eat some salary.
Scott Van Slyke seems like a fit for the Reds also.
Completely agree. The Reds have the possibility of trading Cueto, Latos, Leake, and Simon. All were great this year and all are free agents after 2015. I’m sure they will try and extend at least one and trade one for a LF. Lots of options for both the Dodgers and Reds to match up here.
Definitely a team that underachieved and will want to contend in 2015. Those are the teams that often are willing to make those deals. Reds. Jays. Red Sox?
Please tell me where any of the dodgers outfielders are going to play in Boston next season. They already 6-7 OF that could possibly make the roster, if you count JBJ. They have Cespedes, Betts, Castillo, JBJ, Nava, Craig, Victorino
Gonna say it right now, I think this is gonna end up being a bad move for the Dodgers. Based off Friedman’s record, he isn’t nearly as good with the high-end FA acquisitions as he is with the mid and low-end FAs, and with a far larger payroll, Friedman will be going after the expensive FAs a lot more. Just don’t see it ending well.
um, can you give an example of a “high-end FA acquisition” by Friedman?
Not just a bad one… anyone..
Pat Burrell was high-end for Tampa.
Pat Burrell, Grant Balfour, Troy Percival, Carlos Pena (the second time around). And let me clarify, when I say “high-end FAs”, I’m speaking relatively compared to what Tampa can afford to do. By Rays standards, those are high-end free agents.
I think the long-term goal is probably to try and limit the amount of high-priced free agent signings and try to build more from within.
Friedman has shown he is adept at identifying young talent and signing them to affordable, team-friendly deals. Doing things like that can probably help to eventually bring payroll below the $200 million mark, which it seems like is the long term goal.
Also, going forward, it seems a lot of teams are locking up their good, young talent earlier so there is likely to be less and less attractive talent on the free agent market in the future. So it makes it imperative to develop and keep your own talent as much as possible.
Doesn’t say who the next gm will be for the dodgers.
I am thinking it will be former Nationals Assistant GM, Bryan Minniti. He recently left the Nationals and, just my guess, but could be a guy who gets consideration due to having ties with Kasten when Kasten worked in the Nationals organization.
Let’s see: Dodgers have probably the third- or fourth-best first baseman of the last decade, second-best first shortstop in baseball today, a top-five defensive third baseman, second-best left fielder of the last decade, one of the game’s most powerful right fielders who was in the conversation for best player on the planet three years ago, an electric third-best center fielder in the sport, the best pitcher on the planet, the pitcher with the best individual season of the last decade, a pair of excellent reserves, the 2014 MLB steal leader, an excellent bargain-bin number-three starter, an innings-eater, a top-five closer, a top-five GM, and a massive, exhorbitant payroll. What don’t they have going forward? A catcher and a third ace?
Ryu is a top 30 pitcher easily so could be considered a near ace.
Ellis might be a spectacular pitchers’ catcher though no way can a fan quantify.
I would consider taking Bumgarner, Kershaw, Greinke, Samardzija, Gray, Kazmir, Darvish, Hernandez, Iwakuma, Richards, Keuchel, Scherzer, Sanchez, Porcello, Price, Sale, Quintana, Kluber, Shields, Hughes, Tanaka, Lester, Cobb, Kuroda, Strasburg, Zimmermann, Fister, Gonzalez, Roark, Fernandez, Harvey, Lee, Hamels, Teheran, Wood, Ervin, Arrieta, Wainwright, Lynn, Cueto, Latos, Liriano, Lohse. I wouldn’t take all of them, but I’d consider taking all of them, and that’s 43 pitchers. He’s definitely a “2” pitcher at worst, but I’m not sure he’s a near-ace. I didn’t include Pineda, McHugh, Hammel, Garza, Gallardo, Cole, Alvarez, deGrom, Buehrle, Stroman, Tillman, Smyly, Verlander and many others, either. He’s for sure a top-60 pitcher, but saying he’s easily top-30 is stretching it a little. He might be top-30, but I’d hardly call it easy to say.
Which RF are you referring to?
Edit: I realize now you are taking about Kemp.
who is “the second best left fielder of the last decade”?
Crawford? haha I definitely don’t think he’s the second best left fielder of the last decade.
2005-2014, really only Matt Holliday has a case to be better. Braun has a year at 3B, a year at RF now, and nobody else except Braun really has a case since 2005 began. In fact, since I just looked it up, the LF rankings in fWAR since 2005: Holliday first with 48.5, Crawford second with 34.1. Braun sits at 33.1 WAR and 600 PA behind Crawford with the aforementioned position (and steroid, for that matter) issues. It’s really only Braun, Crawford, and Holliday at the top. Nobody else has cracked 28 WAR, and the other guys over 25 WAR – Hamilton, Gordon, Soriano- are clearly inferior to Crawford, don’t have the playing time, have a different position in that time as well, or a combination.
Carl Crawford, the man averaging 520 PA of .295/.338/.450 baseball with a 112 wRC+, 3.4 fWAR, and 35 SB per year over the last ten years.
Holy shmoly, this is huge!
Stunning!
Bet the Dodgers paid a King’s Ransom here for Friedman!
The problem is the Dodgers have a boatload of bloated contracts.
Friedman is good, but he’s not exactly starting from scratch here!
Plus, Donnie Baseball isn’t exactly Joe Maddon.
Maddon is really an excellent manager and really was just as important to the Rays success! Should be interesting!
The biggest contract they need to deal with is probably Ethier’s. Look for Friedman to trade Ethier, while eating a lot of money.
The bullpen also has some dead money (ie. League, Wilson), but they will likely have to be kept. Their roles will just likely be reduced.
Other than that, most of the other “big contracts” performed well last year (Kershaw, AGon, Kemp, Crawford, Greinke). My guess is if Crawford can build on last year’s performance, they can trade him (while eating some money) after next season. All the other guys are players management would probably want to keep long term.
I disagree that League is dead money. Overpaid? Definitely. But 63 innings at a 2.57 ERA? Thats a solid bullpen piece right there.
I do agree though, Ethier is most likely to go. That still leaves us with 5 quality outfielders in Puig, Kemp, Crawford, VanStache and Joc. Wonder how they’ll deal with that logjam. I suppose Van Slyke still maintains some value because we can put him at 1st every now and then, but not sure it makes sense to hold onto him. Kinda a rare situation, curious to see how he deals with it.
Even though the Dodgers have a seemingly endless budget, the more I think about it, the more I think Friedman will have to work some magic here after all. We have some bloated contracts, and very few quality pen arms. We need to totally overhaul the pen, and Friedman could be the perfect man for the job (Colletti certainly wasn’t).
Take Ethier out and you are left with three everyday outfielders and a good fourth (Van Slyke). I don’t see any sign that Pederson is ready for the bigs. If by some chance he comes of age during the season there’s always the non-waiver trade deadline. As for Colletti’s bullpen moves, it’s way more difficult to predict things that haven’t already happened. I don’t know any Dodger fan who wasn’t excited by the Wilson signing.
I think either Pederson gets dealt in a package or starts out next year in AAA again. While he had a great season in the minors, he struggled to make contact in the majors.
Next year’s outfield will be Crawford, Puig and Kemp, with Van Slyke the 4th OF.
With the lack of quality outfielders on the free agent market, Friedman may be able to trade Pederson for someone of real value. If Friedman can find the right match, I think he would be willing to make a trade.
They don’t have to give up anything for him in terms of compensation. Here is what Steve Adams said in his weekly chat: per Marc Topkin, Friedman was working without a formal contract so no compensation to Rays. Whoops.
You’re right, I forgot about that.
Steve is right too.
Friedman kinda looks like Neal McDonough
Were you watching Walking Tall last night?
No, I just saw the picture of Friedman and it hit me.
Friedman knows which way the wind is blowing for small markets, and that’s from the direction of the slaughterhouse.
Friedman isn’t the last stat savvy Ivy leaguer that a small market team can call on for their gm roll..the game is littered with them.
Great move by the Dodgers…. when the Angels needed a GM they tried to get him but, he said no
Shocking! I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a move to be the man behind the curtain being the GM of the GM. Curious to see what Friedman does with the game’s highest payroll. That’s the real test. But what I see is Friedman bringing the concept of young depth (role players) to build around an expensive All-Star core of players that I think is the real key to the Dodgers becoming the monster they’re setting out to be.
I’m not sure how the Dodgers improve beyond sustaining where they are. If anything, they have a case for why the wild card hurts the integrity of the game…. even with the two team format they might mightbe 2 time defending champs
If both teams in the WS are second-place teams I expect some soul-searching from MLB about whether the new format makes any more sense than the old one.
Soul searching… right. Money talks. I’m not a fan of expanded playoffs… and I say this as as a person who grew up and lived with KC in my backyard for 30 years. But…in reality it’s the only way that small market teams will stand a chance. Boston and New York will get it figured out… and it’s back to the back again.
Depends on who’s money we are talking about I suppose. More revenue sharing is the answer but for some reason this is off the menu.
If you’re a small market owner… you want NY, Bos, & LA to be successful.. it means more shared revenue.
Successful in this case I take it means signing more of those massive media contracts. The small market owners I’m sure would like to see more of that revenue shared, such that they could complete on a more level playing field. Only MLB tolerates such huge disparities between the financial abilities of the large and small market teams.
Well, hopefully something is resolved between owners and the players and the money involved before we see another economic shift that really does hurt the game on the field…because the days of a Billy Beane finding a disparity are gone. A league minimum and max would be nice with added pension funding
Wow, talk about a show stopper.
I think its going to be absolutely fascinating to see what Friedman does with almost unlimited payroll as compared to counting every dime in Tampa.
How will he build, big money moves? Small block by block building? A mixture of the two?
It’ll be fun to see, and you have to say its hard to imagine the Dodgers could have gotten anyone better for the job, what hes done for years in St. Pete is nothing short of remarkable.
The end of the Rays challenging for the time being? As long as they have Maddon, probably not, but thoroughly intriguing all the same.
So…Who’s the GM?
inb4 billy beane joins the Dodgers to become the GM.
As a Giants fan… oh no.
Now fire Mattingly
It is a good day for the AL East.
Call me crazy but:
In:
Friedman to Dodgers
Maddon to Dodgers
Out:
Mattingly to Yankees as either Hitting Coach or Bench Coach (If they miss another postseason then Girardi is out & Mattingly takes over)
Just me playing psychic…
It looks like the Dodgers are making a dramatic shift from spending to building with the farm system.
Or perhaps a shrewd mixture of the two…
They made that shift two years ago.
Its been Kasten’s drumbeat from the beginning. Spend to get relevant but they will build from within and augment as necessary.
Friedman is making the great escape. Rays farm system now ranked in the lower third of MLB. Sternberg isn’t moving the payroll anywhere near $100 million in the next 3-5 years.
He saw the future based on this years result.
His first move? Dump Mattingly, ideally initiate a trade with the Angels. Mattingly for Scioscia.
not bad
In terms of payroll flexibility and budget, it’s almost like moving from managing the mom-and-pop corner store to running the Whole Foods franchise.
The LAD will never be in the WS as long as
Mattingly is the manager. He makes inane decisions.
Talent always funnels up in baseball, and now it’s occurring with front office personnel. It might seem discouraging to the fan bases that aren’t sitting on mounds of cash…but it does allow for change, and change can be good….fresh ideas are the lifeblood of success
The TV contract, improvements on the field and in the office. This is all an attempt by the Dodgers to build a war chest to purchase Cuba. Communism can’t last forever, or withstand Magic Johnson’s smile.
Ha Ha. No more players to buy, Dodgers???
This is disappointing.
The Rays aren’t going anywhere. Losing Friedman hurts, but this team is built to win for several more years. There have been some very poor drafts, so maybe changing the front office will actually help in that area.
This is either going to make Brian Cashman seem like an underrated GM or one of the worst in the game. We finally get to see what brilliant small market GM can do with an unlimited payroll.
Unlimited payroll or not, the problem is will the Dodger get lucky with the free agents that are available in the next few years?
Or will they get lucky with making trades?
Friedman is still kind of hamstrung with contracts that are not considered to be good.
The concept of being “hamstrung with bad contracts” is overstated, especially for a team with the spending power of the Dodgers. Players who don’t produce can be traded for pennies on the dollar if necessary, or even released, if better options are available. Right now that only points to a couple of players on the roster, at most.
How many contracts did Friedman give out that were valued more than his, in his tenure with TB? 1? Longos?
Yes, just Longoria’s contract.
Now if they can get Madden to join him, they’ll really be on to something.
I have serious doubts that Stu will let Joe walk.
Ouch
Oh well. Hope Dave gets the job.
Wow, a front office guy being paid like a player.
Remarkable. Life-altering money and a new challenge with an open checkbook. The man has a lot of talent, and while I’m not a Dodger fan, I’m going to be very interested to see what value he can add.
Kenneth Andrew Friedman showed to be a great strategist.