Major League Baseball

Friedman finally gets freedom, Dodgers finally get a bargain

Published Oct. 15, 2014 1:22 a.m. ET

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Ken Rosenthal

Frankly, it's about time the Dodgers got with the program. If you're going to spend freely to get the best players, why not do the same to get the best general manager?

Mind you, I don't know what Andrew Friedman will be paid to be the Dodgers' president of baseball operations. But I'm confident that whatever the price, it will produce a far better return than say, the Dodgers' two-year $18.5 million investment in Brian Wilson, or their three-year, $22.5 million plunge on Brandon League.

Friedman will make mistakes, just like every executive makes mistakes. If anything, his departure from the Rays for the Dodgers ensures that his mistakes are about to become more expensive. But, based on his history, he's going to be right more than wrong, and the Dodgers are going to get better before they get worse.

Remember when Billy Beane almost took the Red Sox job? Twelve years later, the scenario finally will play out, the coveted GM breaking out of low-revenue jail to join a big-budget behemoth with a storied history. Oh, the Dodgers expect their payroll to gradually decline as prospects emerge and contracts expire. I'll believe it when I see it. But even if the number falls from $230 million to say, $175 million, it still will be $100 million more than Friedman ever had with the Rays.

That's all.

Friedman, who turns 38 on Nov. 13, previously resisted overtures from the Angels and his hometown Astros, but the time was right for him to jump. The Rays still play in Tropicana Field. They still don't appear close to getting a new park. And while Friedman is close with owner Stuart Sternberg and the executive who will replace him, Matt Silverman, what exactly was left for him to accomplish as Rays GM?

All he could do was tread water — or, more to the point, try to avoid drowning. Friedman hated trading James Shields, hated trading David Price. Now he can sign such players as free agents if he wishes, or avoid them and spend on others. In baseball, money equates to freedom —€” the freedom to make choices, choices that simply do not exist for the Rays.

Before any of that, though, Friedman likely will hire a GM, just as Theo Epstein hired Jed Hoyer to work under him with the Cubs. Bryan Minniti, who resigned last week as the Nationals' assistant GM, is one possibility — he worked for Dodgers president Stan Kasten in Washington, and Friedman interviewed him for a position with the Rays five or six years ago, according to major-league sources.

Ned Colletti? The former GM will remain with the team as a senior advisor to Kasten, but his power is gone. Don Mattingly? Kasten said on a conference call with reporters that no change in managers is expected. But Friedman is inheriting Mattingly, just as Kasten inherited Colletti. And while Colletti won five division titles in nine years, there always was a sense that Kasten would want his own man.

The difference with Mattingly, at least for now, is that he remains a favorite of ownership. Rival executives also believe that Friedman is unlikely to part with one of the Dodgers' few elite prospects for Rays manager Joe Maddon, who has a year left on his contract. But Mattingly will not necessarily be safe even if Maddon signs an extension with the Rays. Friedman always could find another manager.

Whatever, the Dodgers' vision is changing. And Friedman, after years of working under tight financial restrictions, knows precisely what pitfalls lie ahead. With the Rays, he became keenly aware of where he was at a disadvantage — and keenly aware that the Rays benefited when AL East opponents such as the Yankees and Red Sox signed declining players to mammoth deals.

Again, no one should expect Friedman to be a miracle worker, not when he will inherit a surplus of outfielders, a shortage of relievers and a number of bad contracts. But the Rays, through both scouting and analytics, built one powerhouse pitching staff after another. Constructing a viable offense was more of a challenge, but part of that was due to their payroll limitations.

Friedman will need to draft better with the Dodgers than he did in recent years with the Rays. He also will need to adjust to the increased scrutiny of a larger market. No longer will he be perceived as a valiant underdog. He will not even get the grace period that Epstein has enjoyed while rebuilding in Chicago. No, he will be expected to win every year.

This isn't the same as when the Dodgers hired Paul DePodesta away from the Athletics to be their GM in 2004; DePodesta was more of a behind-the-scenes figure in Oakland, an introverted type who never had led an organization. Friedman knows the job. He has done the job. And now, for the first time, the game isn't stacked against him.

The offseason hasn't even started, and the Dodgers already have made the biggest acquisition.

Whatever the price, Friedman will be a bargain.

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