Editorials

Dodgers Executives Speak About Winter Meetings

It’s tough not to feel as if the Dodgers missed an opportunity to improve the roster this past week at the Winter Meetings. Team executives wouldn’t necessarily disagree, but patience is a virtue, after all, and they’re standing by just that.

Just as the meetings wrapped up Thursday morning, Stan Kasten and Andrew Friedman took some time to give a few quotes on the week that was and how it affects the team’s direction moving forward.




ICYMI: Dodgers Remain Interested in Johnny Cueto


All quotes via Bill Plunkett of the OC Register.

“It’s never been important to me – a certain magic about these four days as opposed to days and weeks after,” Friedman said. “What it’s about is what it looks like in April.”

While it might be frustrating to look at the roster after Nashville with only Isashi Iwakuma (35) and Chase Utley (37) as the only signings in an offseason where one top priority was to get younger, Friedman does have a point. The offseason is much more than a few days in mid-December.

While some deals obviously are completed while so many executives are in the same place at the same time, the meetings are typically about starting conversations that will extend through the rest of the offseason, if not the year.

In the case of a Jose Fernandez, where so many moving parts are involved, it’s pretty unrealistic to expect both parties to agree with only four days to do so.

Still, Friedman didn’t sound too torn up about the future of the team.

“We’re really excited about the core we have in place,” Friedman said Wednesday. “We feel it’s a championship-caliber core and we continue to build around it and add to it.”

Again, he makes a valid point. Quite a few teams would happily trade for a core of Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson, Yasmani Grandal, Kenley Jansen and Yasiel Puig all under 28 already playing at the major league level. Oh, and a farm system featuring Julio Urias and Jose de Leon ready to come up in the next couple seasons.

In terms of flexibility, while it would certainly have been nice to shed Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier’s salaries already this offseason, by the time the oldest player named above turns 30, both deals (a combined $48.5 million in 2017) will have come off the books, just in time for Bryce Harper’s first year of arbitration.

Look, I can’t lie, I honestly thought we’d’ve seen more action on the Dodgers’ part this week, but this is by no means the end of their activity this offseason.

NEXT: Bleacher Report Hit Piece on Puig Off-Base

 

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22 Comments

  1. How bout doing something to make this team better. As it stand the Dodgers are looking at a 3rd place spot next year. Team needs another top starter and bull pen help, as well as a power hitter. Hey Friedman, you talk a big game since you have come here, but you have done nothing to talk about.

  2. Excited about the core? What a spin doctor. Your starting rotation has 4 lefty’s and a sore armed RH who is 35 years old. Your best pitcher from last year is now with one of your arch rivals…your offense stunk up the 2nd half of the season and your prized rookie OF could not even reach the Mendoza line the 2nd half……unless something really spectacular causes the immaculate turn around, your offense will stink again…and you will be lucky to win 75 games…

  3. If they do anymore dumpster diving then it will be time to cut off the head of the 3 headed hydra by the all star break and bring in some real baseball minds.

  4. After Greinke left, you seemed to recover nicely, getting Iwakuma and resigning Utley, then getting Chapman. Then the Chapman deal fell through and that initial burst disappeared and you became tentative. Lost your nerve, did not want to take a chance. Then we heard the Dodgers were “INTERESTED” in certain players but you couldn’t or wouldn’t drop the hammer and these players went to other teams. Now you say patience, but how patient are we going to be if we keep seeing the players sign with other teams. Patience won’t help us if all the good players are gone and we end up with reclamation like last year. Get Cue to or Kazmir, just make a splash and make it quickly before those guys are gone. Restore our faith, please!

  5. Tommy Lasordid StevenBell4  according to Satchel Paige…it gets late early out here…..and it may be 2015, but it is definitely late..

  6. I just don’t want them to become timid and sit on their hands while we lose out on the best players.

  7. Maybe Friedman and co. should watch Moneyball so Brad Pitt can show him how to make a deal……….

  8. I don’t want interested – I want signed. I see the Cubs and Diamondbacks are showing a lot of patience.

  9. Friedman and Zaidi are complete and total idiots! Neither one of them has EVER played an inning of baseball in their lives! Now, they have come in and “destroyed” our team with all their analytical BS! The only “good” thing that happened in the offseason, is Dave Roberts being hired as manager! The ONLY reason that happened, is because ownership stepped in, and MADE it happen! Get the hell out of town Friedman and Zaidi! LOSERS! In one fell swoop, you have destroyed our team, and fan base! Can you say PATHETIC???

  10. When I was a kid I used to run around in a toy store looking at all the neat toys for sale, but when I would go back and ask my parents for some of those toys they would turn down my request by emphatically saying, “NO” and that’s exactly what I think is happening with Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi. They run around much like they would in the toy store, but when they go back to Mark Walter and… Stan Kasten for their final approval, those guys say, “NO”.
    Why do they say “NO”? Because they approach the game from a business perspective. They simply understand the business more than Friedman and Zaidi understand baseball and essentially that’s why the Dodgers are linked to so many rumors, but never seem to come back with the player they go after, or the player they need! Seriously, 38 year old Farhan Zaidi as a General Manager? Zaidi was a bean counter in Oakland under then GM, Billy Bean! That should have been our clue right there! You think when teams arrived at the winter meetings, with years upon years of well represented experience they considered calling Farhan Zaidi? I’ve forgotten more than Zaidi knows! I’m willing to bet, that a great many baseball people, GM’s, Executives, etc., don’t even give Zaidi the time of day because he’s not a seasoned GM! Let’s not forget that for the last couple of years this new Dodger brass was fortunate enough to have reaped the benefits of Ned Coletti’s work! What happens from here on out, is all their work, or lack of it!

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