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By Jon Weisman
Selected quotes from Dodger president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman today:
Opening remarks:
“It’s an incredibly exciting day for me, coming into a franchise with such an historic history, occupying the same seat held by legendary baseball men like Buzzie Bavasi and Branch Rickey, is both challenging and humbling. Baseball would not be where it is today, without the Dodgers, and I have to say it feels great to be a Dodger today.
“Baseball is great when fans care deeply, and no team has better fans than the Dodgers. They expect their team to compete deep into October every year, and so do I. The fans know that baseball’s best when you win, so I’m looking forward to working with the many talented people in this organization to help us get to where we want to be, which is bringing a World Series championship back to L.A.
“I will focus on process, and I will be as open and disciplined in our thinking as possible. Success requires an entire team of people who are on the same page and who trust implicitly in the processes we implement together. I look forward to working with the many talent people who are already here in baseball ops and adding dynamic people from the outside as well.
“Most of all, we will create a culture of trust throughout our entire organization. An environment of trust and forthrightness breeds a healthy and highly functional organization. And I want our players to know that we will communicate openly and take care of them at all costs.
“I fully recognize the magnitude of the job ahead of me. This is a world-class organization with world-class expectations.
“It’s important to be able to supplement your major league team and it’s important to be able to use certain guys to go out and get things that you need, whether it’s in the offseason or in July.
On the relevance of team chemistry:
“It’s a much longer answer than we have time for right now, but if you are a team that wins 70 games and you have great chemistry, I don’t want those 25 guys. Those aren’t guys that I necessarily want to be in the trenches with. A lot of those stories about chemistry from the media come after the fact — it’s a narrative after the fact. … I’d rather win with what you determine to be bad chemistry than lose with what you determine to be good chemistry.
“We look at scouting reports. We look at the different metrics. We look at who they are, their makeup. We do a lot of digging on the people we are going to acquire.”
On communicating with players:
“We’re gonna communicate. We’re going to talk to guys. We’re going to be very open and honest and forthright. People are going to know exactly what we’re thinking. I think it’s important that whatever conversations we have with players behind closed doors, that we have with the players, that they understand what we feel like our their strengths, what we feel like are their goals and things they need to work on, so that line of communication is open and guys know what the situation is and where we stand.”
On Don Mattingly returning in 2015:
“Definitely. I’ve had two really good conversations with Donnie. We’re very aligned on a lot of things philosophically, and I have thoroughly enjoyed those conversations. We’re going to get together next week, and I look forward to building that relationship. … Both of us are going into it excited about the opportunity to work together and with a really open mind in terms of how we can help each other and how we can complement one another.
“He’s had a tremendous amount of success, but also he’s got the institutional knowledge. He’s been here, he’s a great baseball guy and he’s someone, like me, who wants to learn more, wants to get better. I think I’m always striving to learn more and improve on what I do, and that was what I got from (talking to) him as well.
On his relationship with Rays manager Joe Maddon:
“I have a tremendous personal relationship with Joe. He’s a really good friend of mine. We had a really good professional relationship as well. That being said, Joe is now working with Matt Silverman and baseball operations there, and I’m excited about working with Donnie. I’m going into it with the mindset that we’re going to be working together for a long time. I’ve had one manager in the 10 years I’ve been doing this, and I’m looking forward to working with Donnie for a long time.”
Robin and Andrew Friedman (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
On autonomy:
“I’m a big fan of collaboration. I think that anyone who thinks there’s one person making all decisions, it’s naive.”
On payroll:
“We’re gonna solve for winning, and I think the payroll part of it will be a byproduct of that. A healthy, highly functioning organization has a lot of good young players you’re interjecting with veteran star players and (being) able to do that in a way that allows you to remain competitive, that’s our challenge. That’s the thing that will drive us every single day in what we do.”
On the outfield surplus:
“If it’s a problem, it’s a tremendous problem to have. We’ve got a lot of really talented players, specifically in the outfield, and we’ll have to work through and figure out what puts us in the best position to have the most success next year in creating a roster that complements one another.”
On Ned Colletti:
“I’ve gotten to know Ned pretty well over the past 10 years. We actually made a lot of trades together early in both of our careers as GM, and we’ve maintained that relationship over time. I’ve respected what he’s done from afar, very much respect the person that he is. We had a tremendous conversation the other day, and I look forward to following up with him soon.”
On facing traffic in Los Angeles:
“It’s going to be a good life lesson for me, because I’m not patient.”
oldbrooklynfan
I know it will take time to find a good GM, one that can make excellent decisions but somehow I’m very anxious for them to find him and we can get going from there.