Dodgers: Former GM Fred Claire Satisfied With How the MLB Season Turned Out
It’s crazy to look back just a few months ago and think that we were close to not having an MLB season. Instead, we get to sit here as Dodgers fans and be happy with our first World Series win since 1988.
This past week, we got to sit down and talk with Fred Claire, the Dodgers GM when they last won a World Series. The last time we spoke with Fred, MLB and the player’s union was in the middle of a really public battle on how to get the season started. Fred stressed multiple times that he wasn’t satisfied with how the league approached the health of players and how public it all had become.
Luckily, MLB and the Union found a way to make the season happen despite a whole lot of uncertainty. The Union and MLB went back and forth for weeks trying to decide the length of the season and what players would be paid. But for Claire, he just wanted to make sure it was safe to play during a pandemic. The Dodgers were certainly able to demonstrate that for all 60 games.
I think that with all of the challenges that baseball faced, and through the negotiations and trying to find the path, that when you look at it now at the end of the road, I think you have to give a tremendous amount of credit to everyone involved…This could have had a very sad ending. And it didn’t. And so you have to weigh all of the factors, as you know I wasn’t happy early on with the negotiations because my point was that it should be health first before anything is agreed upon. But Major League Baseball and the players got through it and hopefully can learn a lot from that.
As a former Dodgers General Manager, Claire can certainly put himself in the shoes of those involved in negotiations. For more on the conversation check out our interview with Fred Claire here.
Fred also released a book earlier this year titled Extra Innings: Fred Claire’s Journey to the City of Hope and Finding a World Championship Team, where he discusses his experience with building a Dodgers team and the brilliant medical minds over at the City of Hope.
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How many top players did Fred Claire trade when he was here? How many World Series opportunities were lost because of him?
The most overrated GM in MLB history. They won in ’88 but that was luckier than the Nats in ’19. I can’t forgive him for trading Pedro Guerrero for John Tudor.