Dodgers: Andrew Friedman Indicates Team Is ‘Close On Coaching Staff Announcement’
Dodgers general manager Andrew Friedman recently spoke with Sportsnet LA. Moreover, during the interview Friedman provided several key organizational updates.
Here is that interview in it’s entirety.
Andrew Friedman discusses the #Dodgers focus this off-season, some of the moves and more. pic.twitter.com/VHAFl2HdCe
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) November 21, 2018
Friedman was asked about the losses of Turner Ward, Chris Woodward, and finally Farhan Zaidi.
In regards to losing key coaching staff and front office pieces – Friedman chalked it up to being ‘the price of success’. He indicated he welcomes the Dodgers losing a lot more people next year as well if that’s the case.
Friedman also offered clarity in regards to the coaching staff vacancies created by Woodward and Ward’s departure.
There are spots to fill, and we are getting close on our coaching staff. I expect to have an announcement on that next week.
Also, Zaidi’s exit to San Francisco and the vacancy it created was addressed.
With Farhan, I think it’s something that the offseason is so unforgiving. The pace of play is so quick, and we weren’t able to find a pause button to slow it down at all. Right now we are all hunkered down to do the things we can and the things we need to to tweak the roster and put us in position to win a championship next year.
Other Tidbits
- Friedman said in regards to catching, Will Smith and Keibert Ruiz are two players the organization is really high on.
- There is a current focus on someone externally the Dodgers can pair with Austin Barnes to catch in 2018.
- Friedman said ‘there is depth in certain areas where we are looking to smooth out the roster’. This could be seen as the Dodgers will trade a surplus (outfield possibly) for a need.
- When asked if the Dodgers will be a big player in free agency, Friedman pointed towards payroll flexibility after 2019 and 2020.
It’s great to hear an interview like this from Friedman which offers clarity on the offseason to come. Look for an announcement in the next week on the coaching staff, and a possible trade before the holidays end.
2018 Player Reviews: Pedro Baez
Reading between the lines; …high on Smith and Ruiz… and …looking for external catcher to pair with Barnes in 2018… No trade for Realmuto; neither Farmer nor Gale considered as options to pair with Barnes. FA catching options: Lucroy and Wieters? Trade options: Pirates Cervelli, Indians Gomes, Twins Castro?
Happy Black Friday SoCal! For me it was also an annual Record Store Day for finding limited editions distributed for this day only. As far as catching, I take it they will find a catcher from the outside to pair with Barnes. And we know Rocky Gale probably won’t make the roster at all. He provides zero offense as I understand. Will be interesting to see what Dodgers do as well as seeing which team out there gives Grandal the lucrative contract he is seeking.
Well, there’s a free agent catcher available, whom the Dodgers discarded for absolutely no good reason a couple yers ago that Clayton Kershaw would sure be happy to see back in the organization. He’d be a great Dodger manager as well, but I doubt he would buy into all the sabermetric propeller head nonsense.
Dan, most likely correct and not only that, potential FA’s and players on the trade block probably don’t buy into this either and because of that most will NOT want to come to Dodgers. To get AJ back would be Ok, but he would most likely not be the starting catcher and we know Barnes is not the answer based upon his performance offensively in 2018.
Andrew Friedman continues to pull are chain. He won’t do a thing to improve this team if it costs money. As long as Freidman and Stan Kasten are in front of this organization they’ll never spend money anymore. So we hope the kids do the job.
To be fair , money has been spent to a certain amount or so but the $$$ spent did not always net a good return, such many of those International signings and spending on guys like Ballet Bret Anderson, Kasmir, McCarthy and so on. As far as catcher goes, wss. But it’s known that JT Realmuto of the Marlins will cost any team a great deal. I don’t of course see them in play for Machado or Harper either.