Dodgers Team News

Andrew Friedman Addresses Dodgers Potential Pursuit of Shohei Ohtani

The worst-kept secret in all of baseball has been that the Dodgers will be putting together an aggressive run at Angels two-way superstar free agent Shohei Ohtani this winter. LA has wanted Ohtani in Dodger blue for some time now, and this is their chance to make it happen.

Ohtani is expected to leave the Angels this offseason after the team once again couldn’t show him that they could field a winning team. The Dodgers are one of the few teams across baseball that can offer Ohtani both the financial compensation that he will command, and the winning organization that he covets.



President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman addressed the potential pursuit of the two-way superstar, and while he can’t speak to specific free agents, he definitely hinted at things.

“Obviously we can’t talk about free agents or impending free agents. But, from our standpoint what has been our mindset, and the great fortune that our ownership has provided us to be aggressive, to go out and put the best team on the field that we can.”

Friedman all but said that the team will be going after Ohtani this winter. The Dodgers have been favorites to land the superstar for some time now, and that hasn’t changed whatsoever.

If anything, LA getting swept out of the postseason in the manner that they did could help them. Now Ohtani can be seen as the missing piece to help this team get over the hump, rather than him joining a team that saw major success in the postseason this season.

Friedman continued with his thoughts about the team possibly going after Ohtani, and he reiterated that LA will field a strong team next season.

“For us, we’re extremely angry, disappointed with how these last two postseasons have gone and we’re gonna do everything we can to put ourselves in position for it not to happen next year. What that means exactly, I don’t know yet. But I do feel very confident that when we show up in Arizona in February, we’re gonna have a team that has very legit championship operations and then it’s about going out and taking care of that first part of the goal in the regular season and doing whatever we can to not be here again next year.”

Friedman can talk all he wants, but unless the Dodgers land Ohtani, it won’t mean anything. The team has been waiting for this moment for some time now, so they need to get the job done.

Fans are expecting Ohtani to be a part of the Dodgers next season and for the foreseeable future. If that doesn’t happen, it will be very hard to sell this team to them, especially if we see more of the same in how they’ve built the roster in recent years.

Photo Credit: Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

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!

Matt Levine

Matt earned a Master of Science degree in Sport Management from Louisiana State University in 2021. He was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, growing up a huge fan of the Dodgers and Lakers. Matt Kemp was his favorite Dodgers player growing up.

6 Comments

  1. Then you better find a manager than can WIN in the post-season; a manager that can win a short series, Freidman. Or, you’ll spend hundreds of million$ more to just win division titles…

  2. So where will Ohtani fit next year? DH possibly if Muncy isn’t here. 1st base no Freeman is there. So LA has him as a part time DH and part time 1st baseman for a year and then in 2025 he might be a pitcher again. And if LA signs him to a long term $500m like contract and he doesn’t pan out as a pitcher, what do you do? Cut or trade Freeman? Too many hopes and wishes after his injury.

  3. I truly hope they don’t go after Ohtani. Martinez was a very good DH let’s bring him back. Ohtani as a future pitcher is a question mark. I don’t see it as a good gamble. I’d like to see them get one or two top pitchers. That is by far the biggest need.
    I don’t see Ohtani as worth the money he will likely get.

  4. Dodgers should sign Yamamoto and Snell. More bang for the buck. That would solidify their starting rotation. Ohtani is too expensive.

  5. I’m a true blue lifelong Dodger fan, so blue that my mom named each of us 6 kids after her favorite players.
    Haters are going to hate what I’m going to say but it’s the truth, since 1965 we’ve only won two full season world championships 1965 and 1988.
    The other two, 1981 and 2020 were both short and season one due to a strike the other due to covid.
    You might not like it but it’s the truth it’s pretty sad, we’ve only won two full season championships in 58 years.
    We’re going to suffer the same fate unless they get rid of analytics during playoffs, it’s a proven fact that we’ve tried it over and over and over, and the definition of insanity truly hits home at Dodger Stadium. Management is expecting a different result however they’re doing the same thing over and over that is the definition of insanity.
    They talk and tell the media and fans things are going to get better, we’re making changes, they’ll bring it a player in the trade deadline and use that player up and when we lose that players gone it happens every year and we’re suckers for it and they’ll satisfy the fans by giving away bobbleheads at almost every home stand.
    The only way top ownership will ever make a change is if fans just stop buying merchandise and stop going to games.
    Save this post, mark it on a calendar and open it up next October, you’ll see everything I said once again is correct, sad to post this but deep down we all know what’s going to happen next year just getting everybody prepared don’t get your hopes up!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button