Andrew Friedman speaks about the Dodger front office

By Jon Weisman

Dodger president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke this morning to reporters about his new hires: Farhan Zaidi as general manager and Josh Byrnes as senior vice president of baseball operations. Here are several excerpts:

“Where we are in the offseason, the pace of game is fast and nobody has any sympathy for us, and they’re not slowing things down to allow us to catch up.

“To get guys in place, without having to settle, in time for the GM meetings is important and allows us to strategize and game-plan heading into next week.

“Both guys are going to touch everything. It’s a massive operation, and our vision is to be as good as we possibly can be in every facet. The development side, international, scouting, the way we use information, the way we prepare at the Major League level — all of those are incredibly important. To have all of touching those not only puts us in the best position we can be but allows us to do so as quickly as we can.

“I don’t think that’s necessarily fair (to pigeon-hole executives with analytics experience). I think all of these guys are incredibly well-rounded and have a lot of respect and appreciate what goes into making players and evaluating players. We’re going to have really strong, good, evaluative voices … and combine that with the objective information we’re able to generate.

“I think people who focus on one (approach) to the exclusion of the other … are not putting themselves in the best position to do what’s right for the organization.

“I think it will be both of us (making calls on trades and to agents during free agency), I’m sure Josh will as well. It’s similar to other teams … all teams have different guys doing things like that.

“I happen to think very highly of these guys. I think you could go around and ask all the teams in baseball, and they’d feel their collective group is their ‘dream team.’ These jobs are incredibly demanding and challenging, and doing it with people whom you respect and whose thought process you admire is incredibly helpful. So again, each and every team feels the same, but I’m incredibly excited about the guys we have in place.

“Our goal is to be as prepared as we can be to react (at the coming GM meetings).

“Our goal is to focus on both (the 2015 season and future seasons) and be incredibly mindful of both in every decision we make.

“It’s incredibly difficult (to build a bullpen). At the end of Spring Training each and every year, when people ask me what I’m most concerned about, my answer is the bullpen. It’s extremely volatile by nature and something that’s really difficult to project. It’s about having as many good options as you can down there and giving Donnie and Honey different looks: guys that can put the ball on the ground, guys that can match up on each side.  … So it’s really about having as diversified group as we can with the requisite depth, knowing that when we break camp, things can change very quickly.”

On Corey Seager: “I don’t think it’s (helpful) to put a timeline on him. He’s an incredibly impressive prospect … he’s got a maturity about him about how he prepares and plays the game. It’s too early to say when we think he’ll be ready, but we feel good about his chances about being a good Major League player down the road.

“I’m convinced that I would not move him off shortstop right now – his hands work really well, and we have a number of guys who think he has a real chance to stick there. The few number of games we got to see him, he had a number of different chances and completed games from all different angles. … It’s a difficult thing to project but we’re going to give him every chance, (because) it’s of significant value if he can play there. The little I’ve gotten to know him, I would not bet against him.”

Friedman also confirmed that all of the Dodgers’ Major League coaches will rejoin Don Mattingly for the 2015 season.