Andrew Friedman Speaks at Dodgers Fan Fest
After the introductory press conference for AJ Pollock during Saturday’s fan fest, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman took time to speak with members of the media.
A Bryce Harper question (and avoidance) aside, Friedman proved to be relatively transparent this particular day. Yes, it was January 26, Andrew.
Highlights
On the signing of AJ Pollock and the balance of the team.
And as we looked ahead to 2019 and beyond, we have a number of left handed hitters that are under control for awhile, we’ve got some left handed hitters coming. Didn’t have as much from the right side — and as we look to 2019 specifically, we felt like we were going to be a very dynamic offensive team against right handed pitching. And against left handed pitching, we weren’t going to be as good.
Much like Dave Roberts mentioned, Andrew Friedman preached the focus on consistency in 2019 over 2018.
I think the team last year was the most talented team I’ve ever been around. But for a host of reasons and some bad luck, some real, we weren’t as consistent. I think a bit thing for us is to avoid the games where we score zero, one, or two runs. As often as we can score three or more and we will win a lot of games doing that. Especially with our pitching staff.
While speaking about playing time around the infield for players like Kiké Hernandez and Chris Taylor, Friedman touched on the status of Corey Seager.
As far as Corey goes, we’re optimistic. He’s done everything he can to this point, but until he gets into games and bounces back and plays the next day, it’s just guess work right now. We’ll feel as good as we can. And it’ll take until we get into spring training and ramp him and see how he’s bouncing — we expect him to be full-go on opening day, but we’re also prepared if we have to ease him in.
Takeaways
The seemingly questionable status of Corey Seager is a change from what Dodger brass has been saying of late. Any potential setbacks for the 24 year old shortstop would be devastating for this team, and difficult to absorb for an extended period of time.
No doubt Seager will be one of the first players to arrive at Camelback Ranch, and likely ahead of most pitchers. Let’s just hope for the sake of the player that he is not rushed to meet an arbitrary date like Opening Day when so much more hangs in the balance.
