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Dodgers News: Mattingly Not Worried About Maddon Speculation

[new_royalslider id=”35″] After the Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated in the NL Division Series by the St. Louis Cardinals, there was the expectation changes would follow.

There was speculation Ned Colletti’s status as general manager was in question, while manager Don Mattingly appeared to be in better standing. The speculation turned to fact when the Dodgers hired Andrew Friedman as president of baseball operations, though Colletti wasn’t fired but reassigned as a special advisor to team president and CEO, Stan Kasten.

Friedman’s arrival came with rumors Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon wasn’t far behind; Maddon’s contract expires after the 2015 season and Mattingly has two years remaining on his deal. However, the notion was dispelled during Friedman’s introductory press conference when he said Mattingly would “definitely” return in 2015.

While the friendship between Friedman and Maddon could make for an uncomfortable situation, Mattingly said the speculation isn’t something he’s worried about, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:

For me, it’s not something I worry about. It’s like I talk to the club, just take care of our business. I focus on putting the best club on the field as prepared as possible and just go about our business. This year is no different than any year. If the bosses don’t like the job you’re doing, they’ll look for someone else.”

Friedman said he and Mattingly held positive conversations and that their philosophies aligned. The Dodgers have made their desire clear to continue developing the farm system and shift to relying more heavily on talent drafted.

That focus is one Friedman excelled in with the Rays, and which Mattingly agrees with and believes the Dodgers are capable of accomplishing:

I like the young guys and building something that’s sustainable year in and year out. There’s no reason in the world why the Dodgers shouldn’t be that, with everything at our disposal.”

While the Dodgers need to recover plenty from the damage done during the Frank McCourt era, their efforts in rebuilding the farm system has provided them with three elite prospects — Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Julio Urias — and others that who have already contributed in some capacity or shown promise.
[divide] Andrew Friedman Discusses Challenge Of Moving To A Big Market

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

7 Comments

  1. why worry…..?? Just get them to the series next year and all these negative fans will think you are a genius

      1. you some sort of fortune teller??? Come on, nobody knows what next years team is even going to look like yet…..a few tweaks and this team could be a lot better…and the players play the game , not the manager…

          1. that is BS…his teams won the western division 2 years in a row, if you think it is all that easy, you do not know anything abut the game. Nobody and I mean nobody picked the Royals to win the AL….Angels should have crushed those guys…. and it took Bruce Bochy a lot more than just years to finally win his WS…..Giants beating Wash? That was a fluke…..and Kershaw blowing up twice in a 4 game series? It is not that easy…too the Giants 56 years to finally win one…

          2. I am not going to argue with you about this so stop trying to do that with me by saying I don’t know anything about baseball because I do. You are just trying to bully me with that comment and I will not tolerate that from you. I have either played or watched since I was a kid. What it comes down to is you have your opinion as I have mine. which is fine with me. As such, I have a feeling we will never agree and never get anywhere with this conversation so let’s just put an end to it now.

          3. fine with me, not bullying you just disagreeing, and bet I have watched and played the game a lot longer than you but you are right…we will never agree…

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