Headlines

  • 2021-22 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings
  • MLB To Experiment With New DH Rule, Mound Distance During 2021 Atlantic League Season
  • Astros, Martin Maldonado Finalizing One-Year Extension
  • James Paxton To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery
  • 2021 Trade Deadline Will Be July 30
  • Diamondbacks Sign Josh Reddick To Minor League Deal
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Indians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2020-21 Top 50 MLB Free Agents With Predictions
    • 2020-21 MLB Free Agent Tracker
    • 2020-21 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2021-22 MLB Free Agent List
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2021
    • 2021 MLB Arbitration Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • Last 100 Comments
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Rays Ponder Life Without Andrew Friedman

By Zachary Links | October 14, 2014 at 6:05pm CDT

With Andrew Friedman heading west, the Rays are confident that the newly-promoted Matthew Silverman can continue to work creatively with a limited budget to field a competitive team.  At the same time, it’s clear that Friedman will be sorely missed on both a professional and personal level.  Silverman, still just 38 years old, got the promotion of a lifetime, but he isn’t exactly doing cartwheels down the aisles of Tropicana Field tonight.

“It’s a difficult day for me,” the former team president and new president of baseball operations admitted on today’s conference call.  “It’s one filled with sadness as one of my best friends in life has moved away and taken a different job.  That’s the primary emotion, though I’m sure I’ll feel differently a few days or a few weeks from now.”

For those of us outside of the Rays and Dodgers organizations, whispers that Friedman could leave for Los Angeles only surfaced late last week when Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times reported that he would be the Dodgers’ top target if Ned Colletti was ousted.  Rays owner Stuart Sternberg indicated that talks started up earlier than that, though he declined to “put a timetable on it.”  The Rays will receive no compensation from the Dodgers for their top exec thanks to Sternberg’s no-contract policy for the upper crust of club officials.  I asked Sternberg if he ever considered altering his policy for Friedman considering the interest he could garner from rival clubs.

“That’s our policy, for better or for worse.  There are positives with it and negatives with it,” Sternberg said, emphasizing that most employees within the organization have contracts, just not the top baseball people. “It’s a unique situation with Andrew and Matt and [new team president Brian Auld]…I put my reputation in their hands and they in mine as well and we have a real level of trust.  When it comes to the contract that’s what it’s really all about and it was never really a consideration with Andrew.”

When asked if he fears Friedman taking other Rays employees with him to L.A., Sternberg referred back to the level of trust that they share.  Whether it’s through a handshake or just a tacit understanding, both Sternberg and Silverman expressed confidence that Friedman won’t poach anyone from Tampa Bay.  That extends to manager Joe Maddon who told the owner that he wants to stay on board despite Friedman’s departure.  “I don’t expect anyone to be joining him in L.A.,” Sternberg flatly stated.   Reading between the lines, it appears that the owner doesn’t have poaching protection in writing.  If that’s the case, he doesn’t sound the least bit concerned about it.

Sternberg will miss Friedman, whom he entrusted with the GM role at the age of 28, and Silverman learned that watching your best friend move to a new town doesn’t get any easier when you’re in your late 30s.  Still, the Rays aren’t throwing themselves a pity party.  Sternberg knew that, eventually, a team with deeper pockets would whisk Friedman away.  When the Dodgers came calling, he didn’t think about looking out-of-house for a second.  All along, he knew that he had a highly capable understudy in Silverman who was ready to take the reins.

Share 4 Retweet 34 Send via email1

Andrew Friedman Joe Maddon Matthew Silverman MLBTR Originals Newsstand Tampa Bay Rays

Offseason Outlook: San Diego Padres
Main
Offseason Outlook: New York Mets
13 comments
newest oldest

Comments

  1. bobbybaseball

    7 years ago

    I wonder if Tom Ricketts ever made a play for him or if Theo was his one and only target. I would have figured the Cubs would have been an attractive potential destination for him back then, but maybe it was too soon and/or he knew that Ricketts was heavily leveraged and not looking to spend on payroll.

    Like
    Reply
  2. DarthMurph

    7 years ago

    If the Rays are worried about poaching, maybe they should hide their personnel amongst the fan(s) in the stadium.

    Cut a deal with Friedman. If he takes more than two people, he has to take the whole team too. A win-win for both sides.

    Like
    Reply
    • Red_Line_9

      7 years ago

      Baseball people are generally very knowledgeable with people from other organizations. It might not be necessary to turn the Dodger front office into Tampa on the Pacific.

      Like
      Reply
      • DarthMurph

        7 years ago

        I meant the whole team. Having the Rays in the Coliseum would be better than that glorified Costco warehouse called Tropicana Field.

        Like
        Reply
        • Red_Line_9

          7 years ago

          Yeah, that joint is pretty abysmal…but I’m not sure tax payers owe any more billionaires a stadium. I was in SF last week and they seem to be doing OK with their privately funded surroundings

          Like
          Reply
  3. DippityDoo

    7 years ago

    Can’t help but respect Sternberg and the atmosphere he tries to put in place, a lot of business owners could probably stand to learn a thing or two from him.

    Like
    Reply
  4. Red_Line_9

    7 years ago

    I was a little surprised that he turned down the Houston job when it was open. I believe that’s Friedman’s hometown.

    Like
    Reply
    • Ryan

      7 years ago

      Well, considering the issues the Houston ownerships have had, can understand why.

      Like
      Reply
      • Red_Line_9

        7 years ago

        Completely understand why he would have turned it down, but it also might have been because of a continued willingness to remain in Tampa. Now if Colorado would just put some good baseball people in place and leave them alone.

        Like
        Reply
  5. Red_Line_9

    7 years ago

    I had no idea such a Judd Apatow bromance was hugging itself out in Tampa.

    Like
    Reply
  6. Mike Matthews

    7 years ago

    Dodgers ponder life with a real GM/President of Baseball Ops.

    Like
    Reply
  7. Ernesto

    7 years ago

    Andrew, take Shelton with you. He’ll totally be your buddy. Please?

    Like
    Reply
  8. Jack Ball

    7 years ago

    The Rays lost their real ace on this deal.

    Like
    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.
Log in Register

ad: 300x250_1_MLB

    Top Stories

    2021-22 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings

    MLB To Experiment With New DH Rule, Mound Distance During 2021 Atlantic League Season

    Astros, Martin Maldonado Finalizing One-Year Extension

    James Paxton To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery

    2021 Trade Deadline Will Be July 30

    Diamondbacks Sign Josh Reddick To Minor League Deal

    Jonathan Hernandez Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

    Dexter Fowler To Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

    MLB Inspecting “Suspicious Baseballs” From Trevor Bauer’s Latest Start

    Trevor Rosenthal Undergoes Thoracic Outlet Surgery

    Recent

    Latest On Giants’ Rotation

    Padres Activate Pierce Johnson, Dan Altavilla From Injured List

    NL Injury Notes: Braves, Myers, Betances, Cain

    2021-22 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings

    COVID Notes: 4/14/21

    Blue Jays Place Julian Merryweather On IL, Select Anthony Castro

    Astros Place 5 On Injured List

    Reds Claim Phillip Diehl, Transfer Michael Lorenzen To 60-Day Injured List

    Phillies Place Adam Haseley On Restricted List, Recall Mickey Moniak

    Braves Place Max Fried, Cristian Pache On 10-Day Injured List

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Kris Bryant Rumors
    • Francisco Lindor Rumors
    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Go Ad-Free
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • 2020-21 Top 50 MLB Free Agents With Predictions
    • 2020-21 MLB Free Agent Tracker
    • 2020-21 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2021-22 MLB Free Agent List
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2021
    • 2021 MLB Arbitration Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Indians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    ad: 160x600_MLB

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • Feeds by Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    hide arrowsFOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top
    Close

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version