Dodgers: Andrew Friedman Talks Keys to Avoiding the Dreaded World Series Hangover
Teams in Major League Baseball that win a World Series often go through a hangover phase in the season after winning it all. We’ve seen it with the Cubs, Red Sox, and Nationals since 2016. The Dodgers, on the other hand, are doing everything they can to avoid the mistakes of those teams.
Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman recently made an appearance on am570. In his brief segment on the show, Friedman mentioned some things they are doing to make their team better in 2021. Friedman also talked about the dreaded World Series hangover that often crushes championship teams.
There are definitely some cautionary tales over the last 5, 6, 7 years of teams that have won it all and then fallen off of a cliff. A day or two after us winning it, our mindset and focus went to how do we avoid that, how do we stave that off and how do we keep that dynamic and that culture that we’ve created, while interjecting different players into that mix in terms of keeping us hungry and focused. And there’s a lot to World Seris hangovers in subsequent years…I think we have a group that is wired the right way and isn’t going to be thinking back on 2020 when we get to Opening Day.
If any team over the last decade is designed for a World Series repeat, it’s the Dodgers. They’re obviously out a few key free agents, but it seems likely that they’ll bring back at least one or two. Justin Turner seems to be at the top of the wish list for the front office, though no one can say for sure how likely a reunion is.
Regardless of free agents, it’s encouraging to know the Dodgers’ mindset heading into 2021. The last thing you want to do after a World Series win is to fall off of a cliff and completely miss the playoffs altogether, as has been the case in the past.
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, interviews, live streams, and more!
Dodgers Fans Sound Off on How Trevor Bauer Could Fit in With LA
JT is a big key to repeating. You can use words like dynamic, and culture. That’s JT.
If this team was going to have a hangover it would have happened in 2018 or 2019 when they didn’t win.
Thanks to the Organizational planning of Kasten and Friedman this team is built to reload! The trade & signing of Mookie Betts was the key but the signings of Treinen & McGee and the trade for Graterol were the key for 2020.
This team is slated to have a rotation of Kershaw, Price, Buehler, and probably Urias. After that, you have some incredible young arms that could dominate after getting some experience. May, Gonsolin, White, Santana, and Gray all pitched or spent time at the alternate site and have the talent to compete for a slot on the 25 man roster.
The Dodgers have Barnes and Smith as catchers with Ruiz due for a promotion. do you trade a catcher for an upgrade at another position? Are the Dodgers still high on Lux? Instead of Pederson do they see Raley, Peters, or Thomas as replacements? How about Kike? Does McKinstry replace him? Several questions for Management. Depends on what the Dodgers are offered this offseason. Does a team in need of a young catcher offer a great deal for Ruiz? Do Seager and his agent Boras want an insane deal to extend? Do the Dodgers decide to trade him instead?
A good start to heading off a hangover is to resign Turner. He’s the club house leader that seems to help keep everyone focused.
Couldn’t agree more!
This team does not need much. I would bring back Turner, lock up Seager, leave the starting pitching alone, bring in a high end reliever, and the rest of their needs can be managed internally. I’m sure Friedman can find some sleepers to pad the bullpen. What else do they need? Whoever gets Pederson’s ABs couldn’t be worse then he was in the regular season when they had the best record in baseball, and Kiki, lovable as he was, is just replacement level, his 0 WAR won’t be hard to cover, hello McKinstry. I would be very surprised if there isn’t enough mutual motivation to get a deal done with Seager and Turner.
As I said before some off season decisions can become more clear and workable if MLB decides to keep the DH in the NL or not. Honedtly, I can’t see them going backwards on this and force pitchers to bat again in 2021. The DH certainly helped the Dodgers cause this year and if MLB is promoting more offense, then having different playing rules for each league is NOT the answer.
Yep, I agree. I am hoping for the DH as pitchers are too valuable to risk, the game needs more offense, & the DH and 3 batter rule speed the game up which it desperately needs.
After the shock of the implementation, I liked the man on 2nd rule on OT games as it brought the sacrifice & speed equation back to baseball. Being my first game as a kid was in 1958 with my Dad at the Coliseum I loved the stolen base, sacrifice bunt, and squeeze plays. Plus after about 10 innings the game is too damn long.
They only played 3 months they should be fine.