Dodgers Super Fan Brad Paisley Shocked by LA Offseason So Far
It’s been an offseason of change for the Dodgers, with longtime stars Cody Bellinger and Justin Turner heading off to new teams. Bellinger’s performance on the field the last two years is replaceable, and Turner got more years and money than L.A. was comfortable giving, but it’s still a shock to think about the team without those two guys.
Country music superstar Brad Paisley was on AM570 on Wednesday, and the host talked about not just Turner and Bellinger, but also Joc Pederson, Kiké Hernandez, and Kenley Jansen, who have departed in the last two years. He asked Paisley if it feels like a new chapter in L.A. baseball.
“Yeah, this feels like that. I mean, it definitely feels like there’s a page turning right now. And we won’t know, obviously, until halfway through this next season whether these changes were good things, or bad, or indifferent. We just don’t know. …
“We’ve been spoiled for several years now when we get the news that we got Freddie Freeman last year, and then before that we get Mookie [Betts], and then there were the midseason trades where they went and got [Max] Scherzer and Trea Turner and stuff like that. They’ve spoiled us for a while.
“And this feels like, this is a different identity all of a sudden. And thank God Clayton’s back, so we have that presence, that glue that he is. But I think it’s gonna be, with somebody like Justin going, there’s gonna be a lot of Clayton to sort of make sure that he instills in some of the newer guys the identity of the Dodgers, that this team doesn’t lose its heart and soul a bit. I think they’ll be okay in that sense, they’ve got leaders in there, but we lost a big leader this week.”
Paisley is clearly a huge Dodger fan and knows his stuff very well, and he’s right that in JT, the Dodgers are losing more than just his on-field production. It’s been a gradual shift, though, over the last few years. Pederson and Hernandez left after 2020; Jansen and Corey Seager left after 2021. Before that, Matt Kemp left (twice), Yasiel Puig left, Zack Greinke left, and almost everyone else left. That’s what happens in baseball.
As Jerry Seinfeld famously said, we’re all cheering for clothes. We’ll continue to cheer for the Dodgers shirts against the Giants shirts. When L.A. plays the Red Sox, we’ll root for JD Martinez and Mookie Betts to beat Justin Turner, Kenley Jansen, and Kiké Hernandez, even though we had our hearts broken less than five years earlier by Mookie and JD beating JT, Kenley, and Kiké.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube Channel yet? Subscribe and hit that notification bell to stay up to date on all the latest Dodgers news, rumors, interviews, live streams, and more!
So how much are tickets, parking and Concessions?
It’s always tough to lose favorites for fans, but in the end it’s all about money for both the players and teams. The blame always seems to be given to the owners, we never seem to think that the player is over estimating their worth. Time and time again, historically, an aging player signing a multi year contract for a lot of money doesn’t work out for the team. The owners responsibility is to put an entertaining product on the field, not to pay someone to ride the bench with injuries or fatigue.
Clearly major league sports are all about the money. Everyone involved wants more money. The trick is to win while staying within the budget. The off season moves by the Dodgers front office so far appear to be akin to a head football coach who tells his players, “Don’t fumble, throw interceptions, or lose the game. Now, get out there!”
That’s hilarious, “historically, an aging player signing a multi year contract for a lot of money doesn’t work out for the team.” We signed Mookie to a 24 year contract at 28 years old (245 mill through first 12, 120 through second 12) yet a 2 year, 20 mill deal for a face of the franchise and leader of the team and community is too much. ???. But it’s ok to sign JD Martinez to 1 for 10 when he’s half the player (can’t play defense) and had 20 less RBIs. So going 1 more year and 10 more million for JT with all he brings is just too expensive, especially when Fraudman already let half the team and Trea walk. It’s fine and dandy not spending big after more FAs and even letting Trea walk for what he got, but there’s no excuse being too cheap and petty to bring back someone like JT over 1 year and 10 million, that’s pathetic. And even letting someone like Chris Martin walk over a paltry 2 year 17 million contract, he was lights out for us. Fraudman has been absolute garbage the last few years aside from the Freddie contract. He’s a huge guy at 6’5 230 and relies on power and bat speed so signing a guy like that into his late 30s should work. But even the Mookie deal is atrocious. It’s literally 24 years with 12 deferred, so the second 12 won’t count against the luxury tax but we’ll still be paying him 10 mill a year to not play for us. And even the first 12 is bad, he’s a small guy that relies on quickness and that goes in early 30s. He’s already hitting 260s and not stealing bases and still has 10 years left. The last 6 years of that contract is going to be extremely terrible. At this rate the last 6 years of the deal he’ll be hitting 250 with 15 HRs and 5 SBs, and those last 6 years he will be counting 35 and 32.5 mill against the tax. Then last year he lets our legendary Closer walk over 16 million, then proceeds to trade a starting OF for a washed up Closer that’s been terrible the last half decade and who makes exactly 16 million. So that was literally a trade of Jansen and Pollack for Kimbrel, who was so bad that he was left off the Postseason roster. Let’s not forget Fraudman traded O’Neil Cruz and Angel German for half a season of garbage washed up Tony Watson. Let’s not forget Fraudman traded Yordan Alvarez for garbage reliever Josh Fields that had an ERA pushing 7.00. He’s had some home-runs drafting, but his other moves have been atrocious. What has he done besides giving Mookie a 24 year contract? The only deal I like at all that he’s done is Freddie Freeman, and he’s already 33 with 5 years left so that one is still left to be written. Fraudman has been running me the wrong way for awhile now and this off-season just sealed how bad he is. He’s had the biggest payroll the last 7 years and all he has to show is a ring during the joke Pandemic season that most people don’t even fully count, it has a huge asterisk.
We had a good run with some of our players over the last several years. However, we won 1 world series and way more often than not we were prematurely eliminated from the playoffs. Something needs to be done to shake this team up. Status quo was not winning multiple world series by having the best players on our team. While sad to see Justin & Bellinger go, it was the right move. JT was getting up there in years, and Bellinger forgot how to hit. We can all agree that the moves the Dodgers have made so far are nothing to get excited about, and that our club as of today is weaker vs than the 2022 club. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that we can make a trade or two before the season starts. As I have repeatedly stated (while I hate the Padres) I do believe that SD currently posses a deeper and more talented roster vs our current roster. All that we can do is hope for the best.
Thus, our hope for 2023 is that the Padres will be managed worse than out club. Given Roberts ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, that will be a challenge.
Um. what he said!