Dodgers president Andrew Friedman has made sweeping changes throughout the organization, writes Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Now that former manager Don Mattingly has stepped down, Friedman will have the opportunity to remake the major league coaching staff too. Today’s managers must serve as a conduit between analytical front offices and the players. Friedman plans to make a hire by the Winter Meetings in two months. Presently, the top rumored candidates are Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez (a former Friedman employee), former Padres manager Bud Black, and Dodgers personnel Gabe Kapler, Tim Wallach, and Ron Roenicke. Of course, other candidates could enter the fray too.
Here’s more from the Dodgers:
- Los Angeles has not developed a meaningful starting pitcher since Clayton Kershaw, writes Shaikin in a separate column. GM Farhan Zaidi claims the club will get younger, but the drafts since Kershaw have not been kind. They’ve made 12 first round picks since Kershaw was selected, and 10 of them have been pitchers. It’s telling that Corey Seager has produced more WAR than all of them in just one month of play. As the Mets demonstrate, a deep, young rotation can bring you a long way. With the Dodgers massive resources, the next step is to develop better pitching.
- Pitching reinforcements won’t arrive by the start of 2016, per Shaikin. That will force the club to spend big to re-sign Zack Greinke or acquire another top arm. However, prospects Julio Urias, 19, Jose De Leon, 23, and Grant Holmes, 19, all show promise and could move quickly. Urias is the most recognizable of the trio. He has appeared numerous times here on MLBTR. De Leon also came up in deadline rumors, particularly for Cole Hamels. Holmes, the club’s first round pick in 2014, may be slightly less visible than the other two. However, prior to the season, FanGraphs’ Kiley McDaniel rated him as the fourth best prospect in the system – ahead of De Leon (seventh ranked).
For those who don’t know, Urias, De Leon & Holmes among other top prospects, are the reason why the Dodgers didn’t trade for Hamels or Price. Dodgers could still acquire Price in the off-season, probably cheaper than Greinke. Completely confident Friedman is going to build a good manager/coaching staff. He helped put together a good program in Tampa, he’ll do it in LA too.
There is no way Price is cheaper than Grienke. Price is looking at 200 million + and Grienke will top out around 150. Not that Price is a markedly better pitcher (although he has done all of his pitching in the AL and his career ERA, FIP and ERA+ are all better), he just happens to be younger and will get a longer deal. 5 Years is probably the max a 32 year old pitcher can get, but a 30 year old can get 7.
Was about to post a similar response, but you got the gist of it. I’ll add that Greinke could top $150m by a decent amount. I could see something like 5/$160 or 6/$175. Remember, there’s added value not only in not paying for an older age year but also in not having to commit money as far into the future.
The one way that Price is cheaper is that he won’t cost the Dodgers a draft pick, which signing Greinke would. But that pick obviously isn’t worth the $30m-$60m difference between what the two will cost to sign.
I think it would be neat if the Dodgers let Greinke, Kendrick, and Anderson go, collected the draft picks for them, then replaced them with something like Price, Zobrist, and Cueto. Nice win-now-and-in-the-future move, the type of thing I’d do with the league’s biggest payroll.
‘won’t cost the Dodgers a draft pick, which signing Greinke would.’
Hey CXCX, just curious as to how resigning Greinke would cost LA a draft pick? Isn’t that only for teams that lose a player they gave a qualifying offer to? You’ve gotten me a bit confused with that comment.
Zack Greinke will cost anyone except the Dodgers a draft pick.
He meant by resigning him they wouldn’t receive that pick.
Sorry, misread the initial post. Agree with you.
Jose De Leon is actually 23 years old.
A good plan would be to sign Price and Greinke. Too many arms is never a problem.
Finally someone sees it the way I see it. We got the money get both. Every year it’s the same thing. Not enough pitching with Kershaw, Grienke and Price we are looking good and not mention Ryu coming back. Wow. That would be great especially for the playoffs. Doesn’t put to much stress on one guy and if a guy has a bad game it’s not the end of the world cause we still have two more aces and Ryu who could be a number 2 anywhere else but is out number 4. I pray we do something like that.
Yeah can’t be certain Ryu or any pitcher for that matter comes back the same or better. You can always trade one also and we know how desperate teams can get when an ace or above average starter is available.
Statistics for pitchers returning from shoulder surgery on throwing arm are not encouraging.
Not only Ryu, but by mid-season McCarthy will be back too.
Maybe, but what’s the contingency plan if they aren’t? The lack of promotable starting pitching makes it difficult to cover gaps in the rotation so the team ends up signing a bunch of reclamation cases and hoping one of them works out.
I seriously doubt the Dodgers sign the top two pitchers available. They aren’t the only team with money. The Cubs, Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, etc. are all expected to be in the market for these big names. The chances the Dodgers outbid them twice is highly unlikely. I also don’t expect them to continue to grow their payroll to even more insane levels.
How do we really rate the chances of retaining Greinke? I’d call those odds much lower after the Mattingly firing, and management basically showing the rest of the coaching staff the door.
Dodgers rotation
Kershaw
McCarthy – DL
Ryu – DL
Wood
Bolsinger
Frias
2016 free agents
Greinke $25M
Price $19.75M
Zimmerman $16.5M
Gallardo $14M
Fister $11.4M
Samardzjia $9.8M
Cueto $6.75M
Kazmir $4.5M
Estrada $3.9M
Leake $3.6M
De Leon is 23, Dodgers drafted him out of college, and he likely the pitching prospect closest to helping the Dodgers in 2016. Jharel Cotton, 24 in January, Zach Lee and Ross Stripling may also compete for spots in the rotation or BP in ST, if not used in trades during the Winter.
Just because the Dodgers have the resources to pay their rotation $125m/yr doesn’t mean that’s why they aren’t playing this week. If you absolutely can’t win in the postseason without multiple 7 WAR SP your team has some serious holes elsewhere on the roster.
Jose De Leon is 23 and there is another young pitcher to watch, Jharel Cotton
De Leon is 23, Dodgers drafted him out of college, and along with pitching prospects Lee, Cotton, and Stripling should compete for the no. 5 starting position in 2016. Alex Wood at no. 4.