THURSDAY: The Dodgers have announced the pair of signings. Zaidi will assume the role of general manager, while Byrnes has been named the senior vice president of baseball operations.
“It is very exciting for us to be able to add two exceptional, veteran baseball executives like Farhan and Josh,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said in the press release. “Farhan’s primary focus will be the Major League team and player acquisitions while Josh will concentrate on the oversight of scouting and player development. However, they will both work closely with me on all aspects of baseball operations in our efforts to make the Dodgers’ front office and team the best it can possibly be.”
TUESDAY: The Dodgers will name former Athletics assistant GM Farhan Zaidi the team’s new general manager this week, according to a tweet from Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. Zaidi, 37, had been with Oakland for ten years and was promoted just before last season.
The club is also set to add former Diamondbacks and Padres GM Josh Byrnes, Mark Saxon of the Los Angeles Times reports on Twitter. Though it is not yet known what position he will hold, his addition is a “done deal,” per Saxon.
Combined, the addition of the well-regarded Zaidi and experienced Byrnes represent major additions to the front office of new president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.
Zaidi’s former boss, Billy Beane, credits him with a brilliant and creative mind, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in a profile. According to Slusser, Zaidi was instrumental in bringing Yoenis Cespedes to Oakland and in maximizing value through platoons.
A Muslim Canadian who grew up in the Philippines, it goes without saying that Zaidi does not have a typical background for a baseball executive. But his analytical background — he has an undergraduate degree from M.I.T. and a Ph.D. in behavioral economics from Cal-Berkeley — ultimately won him a chance with the A’s, and he never looked back. In spite of his background, Zaidi is known as a proponent of utilizing traditional scouting and focusing on tools in identifying talent.
I thought Friedman was the GM? Guess hes just the head of operations.
Yeah, Friedman is basically head of everything in player personel.
Same arrangement as the Cubs with Theo Epstein as the President of Baseball Operations and Jed Hoyer as the GM.
He is the President. Zaidi is probably going to be the one doing a lot of the negotiation, but Friedman will certainly be there approving and directing the team.
West Coast Theo
It’s going to be an interesting season we have enough GMs what can go wrong.!!!
If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that you can never have enough GMs.
Last year you guys had several former closers. Having several GM’s is the new direction.
Congratulations Dodgers. You just got one of the most underrated front office minds in the game. Huge loss and between him and geaney a huge void to fill
I dont like this at all. All these guys that the Dodgers are signing are not meant for this team. I dont want the Dodgers to be getting rid of players just because of their trade value is up. In reality all these money ball teams dont make sense because they dont have rings to back it up. Money is not an issue to the dodgers.
2004/2007 red sox were moneyball.
Money isn’t the issue at hand with moneyball, that’s just uninformed to think it is. It’s about finding undervalued assets/trends on the market.
More like big market team spending big money.
When you have a josh becket in his prime. Juiced up Manny, Big Papi and all these stars who were making big money. Its not called money ball
This very idea. The Red Sox in the past, and practically everyone practices the idea of Moneyball now. It is more about understanding the game of baseball and statistics and what creates runs than how much you spend. It happened that when the A’s started this trend they were “poor” and had to do this to compete with the major markets. It doesn’t fully translate though because a ring is hard to get with or without money (1 of 30 teams competing for it, 162 game season, AND short postseason), especially if the Giants keep winning every two years with a great deal of luck and Mad Bum. It’s difficult but teams have successfully practiced strategies that are the principles behind Moneyball, like OBP and OPS, and won championships (Red Sox ’04, ’07, and Yankees ’09).
give it a rest. 3 in 5 isn’t luck anymore. You said that after 2010 and it had substance. Now it just shows bitterness.They rise to the occasion.
still lucky wont change my mind about it
The idea that the Red Sox were moneyball is utter revisionism. They were a top 3 spending team through all those years.
Yes they were – they spent a ton of money. But players like Mueller, Millar, Bellhorn, Kapler were integral low cost free agent signing. Don’t forget Ortiz was picked off the scrap heap after the Twins released him. He was one of the last to make the roster in 2003.
You could say the 05 white sox were moneyball by that logic. Dye was off the scrapheap (Series MVP Dye ) as were A.J. Pierz, Jenks, and most the rest of the bullpen and DH Everett.
If you have big money (Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox), spending lots of money is actually moneyball.
To add to Snoochies point, the Rays for the last several years.
Where are the rings for the rays? Dodgers are not a small market and honestly they dont have any excuses to loose when your team is full of stars. Its commin sense
The best team on paper doesn’t win a lot of times in baseball.
Even the giants have their moneyball zaidi-equivalent in their front office. Dayton moore had at least moneyball tactics in thinking guys like Terrence gore/Lorenzo Cain/Jarrod Dyson/Algiers Escobar/aoki were all undervalued
I want to see rings. Next year I wont remember the second place Royals only the champion Giants
Then have the team win just 88 games next year and eek into the wild card. That may help your chances. or just make sure the dodgers aren’t actually the best team in the playoffs. That’s seemed to work for the majority of the last bunch of years
Why doesn’t Moneyball make sense just because they aren’t bringing in rings? They don’t do it because it’s better than (wisely) spending lots of money, they do it because it’s the only choice they’ve got if they don’t want to be cellar dwellers.
I was born in 89 and havent seen a championship. Idk about you but I want my Dodgers to win one. So i do expect them to take it all especially when your paying over 5 dollars to eat a Dodger dog.
If the point is “Moneyball doesn’t make sense for the Dodgers” then I can see the sense in that. But it reads as “no one should use Moneyball at all.”
I understand small market teams use money ball. But we dont fall under that category
You are not showing a comprehension here for understanding that these geniuses are not about not spending money or playing Moneyball, they are about getting absolute value for the $. The exciting thing about the dodger front office is to see what happens when these minds who were restricted before by financial restraints are no longer. Anyone can spend money but can you spend it wisely?
Precisely. These guys can not sign the players that they wish they could, but they won’t throw big money at players that don’t really improve their team, or marginally just so.
I’ve got a lot of years on you and I just want to see them win one before I collect Social Security.
Good luck
Money isn’t the key factor with the Dodgers, but moneyball isn’t just about money, and certainly isn’t only used by small market teams. Friedman and Beane’s teams consistency construct successful rosters. The Dodgers awful contracts are blocking potentially better players from having a roster spot. You can’t move players that no one wants (just ask the Phillies), even if you pay a significant price.
The NL West is SCARY.
Giants with 3 championships in 5 years, Padres with Preller and co. , Dbacks have La Russa and up and coming talent, and now the Dodgers with deep pockets and big brains. Poor Rockies.
While I would guess a big improvement simply by getting rid of Towers and Gibson, I would not call the Diamondbacks in the neighborhood of scary yet. There is no way to evaluate La Russa as a front office executive.
Padres could be a major power with the Logan White hire a big factor.
I wouldn’t cassify them as scary either, I was referring to the division as a whole. It’s a tough one to win and play in. Although I do believe AZ is on a good track. They have plenty of young talent and although it’s early to grade La Russa he does have a knack for getting the most out of players.
Good god… After complaining about the Dodgers FO for years, I’m now at the point where I have to sit back in awe at the smart moves. I believe I have whiplash.
I wonder what Mark Walter is thinking about all this. You better win, all that money am paying you guys.
no brainer for Zaidi.
More money, higher payroll…
and if they dont win, they would blame Friedman first because he’s the one pulling the strings.
good move.
Billy Beane teams have a) never won a World Series and b) only got to one ALCS and were swept. Regardless of what his payroll is and how smart he is hes not the best GM in baseball to me. Same with Friedman. Show me the rings. Cherington and Epstein are best to me with Sabean and Mozeliak close behind. Sabermetrics and numbers arent everything. That thing called scouting and eye-tests seemed to work pretty well for about a hundred years or so and continue to. (This is from a Mets fan)
How can you say “show me the rings” one second, and then in the next breath rate the guy with the most rings behind two other guys? Doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me…
I also said “closely behind.” I wouldnt have a problem with Sabean ahead of Cherington Epstein or Mozeliak. Also come on Sabean has 3 rings while Epstein has 2, Mozeliak has 1 + 1 as the Cards Assistant GM in 06 and Cherington has 1 + 2 as a high-up in Boston Front Office. All great GMs either way.
Bad mouths sabermetrics, then praises GMs that use them extensively.
Epstein and Cherington use Sabermetrics only to an extent. Boaton may have James as a consultant but when you have one team with Pedro Martinez another with Josh Beckett in his prime and another with a healthy Jacoby Ellsbury PLUS Papi on all three and Manny Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia on two you tend to do alright.
Cherington had some of the best left field production in 2013 with Nava/Gomes. That wasn’t just cheap, it produced. He also was right on in his evaluation of Mike Napoli – who turned out to be a better first baseman they thought. He did build a smart club without stars, but use his financial might to blow out the market (Napoli, Victorino, Uehara, Dempster, Ross, Drew, Carp) – and they almost all produced that year.
Why Mozeliak and not Walt Jocketty?
Once a team gets into the playoffs, anything can happen. That’s why you saw two sub 90-win teams in the WS. Under the rules of a couple years ago, the Giants wouldn’t have even made the playoffs. When was the last time you saw a team with the most regular season wins take the WS?
2013 Red Sox
I notice no one wants David Forst…
The Dodgers now have a Jewish President of Operations and a Muslim GM, that is actually great when you think about it. And Josh Byrnes, Irish Catholic?
The Dodgers front office walks into a bar…
And Coletti worships saves and small sample sizes
best comment i’ve seen on here in a long time. actually laughed out loud.
Friedman is forming one of the most brilliant front offices in baseball. These Dodgers, with a payroll that large, and 3 young baseball minds that are very good are going to do a world of hurt on other teams around the league. It’s scary what they’re doing over there.
That’s what they told me in LA about Paul DePodesta.
Friedman has had a large amount of success as a GM, not at all similar to the DePodesta hiring.
Really smart hire by the Dodgers
Seems like the dodgers M.O. Since magic and co. bought them is the hire 3x the people needed to do the job, along with signing any player out there. They spend money like a drunk sailor.
Dan Haren and Alex Guerrero were the big F/A acquisitions last year, and I think you’ll continue to see the payroll trend down, especially as the ridiculous contracts of Ethier, League, Wilson, Crawford, etc. come off the books. They are far from “signing any player out there”, which is why you won’t see them signing Max Scherzer, Pablo Sandoval, etc. this winter.
As for the front office, they lost Logan White and DeJuan Watson, so those guys need to be replaced, right?
Scherzer makes a lot of sense to me.
I recall Beane talking about Zaidi during an analytics conference I attended a couple of years ago. I believe he mentioned that Zaidi won the job v. thousands of applicants who applied despite the position salary being way way under market value.
I cannot recall whether he mentioned whether he even was a fan of Baseball when first hired.
Seems like this story could be a Hollywood movie.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Farhan. As classy as he is talented.
Great hire for the Dodgers.
That front office is looking like a dream team, but it means nothing if they can’t compile a good roster for next season.
So would this be considered a higher position then GM for Towers? I can’t believe he keeps getting these high ranking office jobs