"You. And you. And you too. You all ripped the Dodgers for standing fairly pat at the trade deadline, despite glaring holes in left field and in the bullpen. Heck, this was the headline in this very newspaper: "Andrew Friedman struck out on the Dodgers' urgent need for a closer." How ever would the Dodgers return to the World Series?"
"The Dodgers, the team that had spent $85 million on veteran relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates over the winter, had gotten their last three saves from Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and Ben Casparius. Their trade deadline pickups: Brock Stewart, a setup man who soon would be lost to injury for the season, and Alex Call, a fourth outfielder. The Padres will not represent the National League in the World Series."
"The thing I can't do is make moves based on what people think we should do," he said. "We're going to make mistakes. We're going to be aggressive taking shots. "Our goal is to be essentially the casino: be right more than we're wrong, and have it yield a really good product that has a chance to win the World Series."
Criticism targeted the Dodgers for making few deadline moves despite clear needs in left field and the bullpen. The team had spent $85 million on relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates but late-season saves came from Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and Ben Casparius. Trade-deadline additions were Brock Stewart and Alex Call. The Padres and Phillies made notable deadline trades yet failed to reach the World Series. The Dodgers won the World Series after relying on roster depth and a strategy of maintaining options and taking multiple aggressive, sometimes risky, shots. Andrew Friedman prioritized decision-making independent of public opinion and aimed to be right more often than wrong.
Read at Los Angeles Times
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]