4:55pm: Friedman has spoken with Byrnes about the position, ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Mark Saxon reports. For his part, Friedman declined to address the matter.
As Saxon further notes, Friedman indicated that finding a new farm director to take over for De Jon Watson was the first priority. It remains to be seen, says Saxon, whether longtime scouting director Logan White will stay in place.
12:56pm: Former Padres GM Josh Byrnes is a “leading candidate” to land an executive role that would effectively make him second in command under new Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
Heyman’s sources indicate that Byrnes’ experience is viewed as a plus by Dodgers ownership, and Byrnes’ philosophical view on the game is similar to that of Friedman. They’re also fairly close friends, according to Heyman, though little has been made of that connection in the past.
Former Nationals AGM Bryan Minniti and current Yankees AGM Billy Eppler have been previously considered as candidates but are now far less likely to get the job, Heyman hears.
With the Padres, Byrnes had his share of misses, particularly in terms of contract extensions. Multi-year pacts for Cameron Maybin, Cory Luebke, Nick Hundley, Carlos Quentin and Will Venable certainly haven’t gone as planned, and the first year of Jedd Gyorko’s extension was a disappointment as well. On the other hand, Byrnes has pulled off several excellent pitching acquisitions. He acquired Tyson Ross from Oakland in exchange for Andy Parrino and Andrew Werner, and this past offseason the trade package he received for Logan Forsythe and Brad Boxberger included Jesse Hahn and Alex Torres. He also picked up Ian Kennedy from the D’Backs in exchange for Joe Thatcher, relief prospect Matt Stites and a Round B competitive balance draft pick.
Moral of the story?
If Byrnes comes, let him be deeply involved in potential trade discussions but keep him well away from anything to do with extensions…
Byrnes got lucky on one trade because Black and Balsley were able to salvage Ross who had been DFA’d by the A’s.
He made an even trade for Torres/Hahn. Torres is horrible walking 5.5/9 with a 8.5 k/9 rate and Hahn was very good. Boxberger was the most dominant reliever in the AL striking out 14.5/9 while giving up just 34 hits in 64 ip, and Forsythe played extended time at the major league level for the Rays. While Lollis has never been able to put the mechanics together on his 6’9″ frame eh is only 24 next season, and Andriese is still a good prospect and spent the season at AAA and had a 3.77 ERA for Durham.
Byrnes blew 4 other trades including the one sending Latos to the Reds and the one sending Rizzo to the Cubs for the oft injured Cashner.
He also gave up a premier LOOGY for a guy in Kennedy who has been well below league average for San Diego although I wouldnt call that a completely blown trade.
Extensions to Quentin, Luebke, Gyorko, and Maybin were not his only snafus. He signed Johnson who never pitched a game for San Diego and Benoit who ended the season with shoulder problems.
How has Kennedy been well below league average? That trade is looking very good.
Kennedy has been below average in ERA, ERA+, WHIP, BB/9, HR/9, BB/K Should I go on?
All I know is Ian Kennedy gave them 3 WAR last year in 200 IP with a 3.21 FIP and 9 K/9. That’s pretty good.
Yes, perhaps you should go on because his ERA was above average, as was his HR/9 and his K/BB ratio. Not to mention things you ignored, such as his innings pitched (201), his FIP of 3.21 and the well above average 9.3 K/9. Just stating these things doesn’t make them true.
I never understood the Rizzo trade. Why give up a power lefty corner bat if you play in SD for a marginal prospect. Some GMs in a way remind me of those Rob Schneider type supporting actors in the Adam Sandler movies….don’t seem to have any discernable talent… then you realize….” oh.. he’s with Epstein.. etc.”
I wouldn’t call him a marginal prospect, and he’s turned into everything you could have hoped for in terms of his success. The question with Cashner has always been his health and whether or not he can stick as a starter, which largely remains unanswered.
You’re right. I under sold Cashner, but I still don’t believe it was a great move. The SD park benefits pitching and places power at a premium.
Freidman and Byrnes would be a good pairing, both have experience building a team via trades and extensions instead of free agency. I think they would work well together.
Definite upgrade over Ned, who is famous, or is it infamous, for giving up too much in trades.
Except when it comes to the Cubs, then he shows excellent restraint.
Yeah, we really want Jerry Sands back.
Carlos Santana would be nice right now
Who else got away, Treyvon Robinson? Wait, he came back, like a canceled check. Ivan De Jesus? Alan Webster? Blake DeWitt?
Byrnes was simply awful as the Padres GM. He decimated the farm system and spent $90 million for a roster that should have lost 100 games if it wasnt for the incredible managing by Black and his staff. NL West fans have to be hoping Friedman hires Byrnes as the GM.
How did he decimate the farm system? It’s not like he traded a package of top prospects. In fact, several of the Padres current top 20 prospects were acquired under Byrnes’ watch via draft and trade.
i’m hard pressed to think of any one prospect the Padres ‘gave away’ in recent years, And if i’m not mistaken this is the same ownership that drafted Matt Bush over Justin Verlander… so it’s hard to pin all the blame for the Padres development difficulties on the GM.
That was Moore’s era of ownership, but you are right that the Padres haven’t had much luck with first rounders. The only talented minor league players I can think of that JB traded were Matt Stites and Brad Boxberger, both relievers (Stites wasn’t even top 20) and both were traded for greater value in return (IPK, Jesse Hahn, and Alex Torres). The trades that are more critical to me, and still under debate, are the Rizzo-Cashner swap and Latos for Yaz, Yonder, Boxberger, and Volquez.
the Rizzo trade doesn’t reflect well on Byrnes, no… Cashner at the time didn’t have much of a track record as a starter and had a lot of health questions… i don’t think the deal was a disaster, but he definitely could have gotten more for Rizzo.
I must admit i’m not entirely sure i see the attraction to Byrnes as a GM anyway. He’s always much hyped… but then winds up doing little you can point your finger to and say ‘he’ll be great for this job’
Not only was it a poor trade on the face of it, it was an insanely bad process that led to the trade.
Letting Logan White leave would be GREAT news for every other NL West team.
Initial thought… Too many cooks in this kitchen.
In the reading-too-much-in-things department:
“Friedman’s news conference was attended by Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who jokingly asked him if he planned to acquire a “younger, faster, stronger” first baseman. Friedman didn’t answer the question.”
¨Make it happen Friedman!¨
A padre fan.
I believe that the power will all lie with Friedman, so a GM will
essentially be a puppet to carry out the wishes of Kasten and Friedman. I
do not see the value of Byrnes except he knows the territory. I cannot
defend any of the decisions he made in San Diego or Arizona. His trades
and signings are highly questionable and I do not get his inclusion as a
candidate for the job other than he will not have decision making
power. Maybe his talent lies in being able to carry out other people’s
wishes. I would not want him making decisions for the Dodgers except in
choosing the color of the toilets in the restrooms
Explain to me how the Latos deal was bad. The ends justify the means. Mat was to get Cin over the hump in the playoffs and they flamed out in first round appearances. Latos wasn’t going to get resigned in SD whether it was his choice or the franchise. Grandal and Alonzo were an attempt to right wrongs of drafts past where the Pads didn’t get impact position player talent. So in hindsight it didn’t work. They filled roster spots to get the team to this point. I would call that a wash.
The Rizzo deal can’t be defended. Cashner still has a chance to pull this back more in the Pads favor. What Pads bashing and no mention of writing Kluber off. The buck has to stop somewhere and hopefully that is Preller, Fowler, Sideler, Dee et al. Just got to wait and see.
The Latos deal was bad in the following ways:
He didn’t need to be resigned by the Padres. He was under their team control until the end of 2015. He was traded with FOUR seasons of control left. I think he was traded at the time because the Padres didn’t want to lock him up to a long-term deal before arbitration, and were afraid that he’d go out and have a monster year in 2012 and then they’d look like idiots because they couldn’t/wouldn’t sign him.
If you decide you need to trade your young, controlled ace (and based on his makeup and general lousy clubhouse presence, there was an argument to made for trading him) then you trade for quality rather than quantity. Byrnes opted for the latter.
The Latos trade is completely intertwined with the Rizzo deal. Josh Byrnes decided while giving up his ace starter that he needed to acquire a 1B because he didn’t believe in Rizzo. It was the intention from the outset of that deal to have Alonzo take the 1B job and move Rizzo out.