Live-blog: Andrew Friedman discusses today’s deals

Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers

By Jon Weisman

Dodger president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is speaking to reporters this evening about today’s three-team trade and other developments. Here’s a live-blog of his comments:

• “We went into the month of July continuing to be focused on adding as much pitching we could. … For us, ideally, we were focused on adding two starting pitchers. We had a lot of different conversations on a lot of different fronts. … We’re excited with the guys we’ve added.”
• “We feel we’ve solidified our bullpen, we like our starting pitching options and think we’re in better position than we were a couple of days ago.”
• “We’ve talked to (Mike Bolsinger) and right now he’ll be coming out of the rotation. It’s nothing he’s done — he’s been great for us. He’s done everything we’ve asked and more. … There’s a lot more games to be played, and we expect him to make an impact.”
• “We’re focused on how we can continue to make the Los Angeles Dodgers a better, deeper team, so we’re having a number of different conversations on a number of different fronts. … We’re continuing to talk about pitching, and where those conversations go, I don’t know at this point. … We feel good about what we’ve done to date, but we’re by no means sitting back and kicking our feet up.”
• “I wouldn’t say that we thought (Hector Olivera) was expendable. We lined up on something we felt really addressed a current need for us.”
• On Jose Peraza: “We don’t have a lot of foot speed in our organization right now. (He’s a) plus runner, tremendous contact skills, middle-infield player (that can help us for years to come).”
• Friedman did say the Dodgers lost a little bit of confidence in Olivera’s ability to play second base, and that Justin Turner’s emergence had an effect.
• “It’s hard enough to line up on trades for one starter let alone two, so we went into it very open-minded in terms of control. This is how it shook out, and we’re excited about how it did.”
• “We think every day in that rotation we have a chance to win, and that’s obviously the standard.”
• On Alex Wood: “He’s obviously had a lot of success to date. He’s a left-hander with three pitches that have played very effectively against Major League hitters. Tremendous competitor. We did a lot of digging, as much as you can, on his aptitude and work ethic. We think he’s going to fit in really well with our group. I’m sure he’s excited to get around our guys and pick their brains. … Potentially there’s another gear in there.”
• “To sit here right now and have addressed the biggest needs … to add future pieces while preserving the top guys in our system is a really good outcome. But we came in here without any hard and fast rules. To the extent something made sense, things could have potentially looked different.”
• “We have that ability to (take on contracts) and it just increases the likelihood of getting a deal done. Obviously trades are incredibly difficult to make by nature, but having that flexibility increases your ability to do so.”
• “Obviously (our bullpen) got out of the gates really strong, and I think we were relying on a number of younger guys that in some ways benefits you and in some ways can be a challenge. … We’re still very bullish on their future, but to add a guy with Jim Johnson’s talents to get high-leverage outs late in the game, it’s going to take a little pressure off.”
• “I have tremendous amount of respect for the passion our fans have for our team, and we all share the exact same goal, which is to win the World Series. Everything we’ve done is with that goal in mind, but it’s also not just about winning in 2015, it’s about creating something we can sustain for many years and hopefully have a number of championship banners up.”
• On Mat Latos, who will likely start Sunday, pending discussions: “He’s a guy who got out of the gates a little slow, went on the DL with a minor knee thing and has come back and been incredibly strong. … The stuff is back. He’s missing a lot of bats, commands the zone well, can eat up a lot of innings. (He’s) obviously is going to be a free agent at the end of the year and is highly motivated to pitch extremely well. We feel he’s going to fit in really well in the framework of our team.”
• On Brandon Beachy: “Those phone calls are never easy to make. We explained what we wanted to do and why. He knows it’s going to take him a little bit more time … to get the finish to the pitches and to sequence the repertoire the way he wants to.”