How Andrew Friedman Keeps Making the Dodgers Better

The Dodgers’ resources — polite baseball-speak for money — have been prodigious: a payroll of about $248 million in 2021 and $281 million in 2022, both the highest in the majors. Those riches, however, led to a notorious overreach: a three-year, $102 million contract in 2021 for pitcher Trevor Bauer.

The Mets also tried to sign Bauer, whom the Dodgers did not really need; they were coming off a championship and already had a deep staff. Bauer made 17 starts last season and is now serving a two-year, unpaid suspension for violating baseball’s domestic violence policy. Friedman would not comment on Bauer, citing Bauer’s unresolved appeal.

Last off-season, the Dodgers made a safer high-end investment: Freeman, who got a six-year, $162 million deal to leave Atlanta, where he had deep roots as a franchise cornerstone. From the start, Freeman said, the Dodgers empathized with him and did not try to rush his transition. His tearful news conference in Atlanta, when the Dodgers played there in June, was a turning point.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/sports/baseball/andrew-friedman-dodgers.html