Since leaving his post as Tampa Bay Rays general manager to join the Los Angeles Dodgers, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has regularly maintained connection to and ties with his former organization.
Friedman’s first transaction with the Dodgers was to trade Jose Dominguez and Greg Harris to the Rays in exchange for Adam Liberatore and Joel Peralta. He’s since acquired Logan Forsythe from Tampa Bay, and the Dodgers have been regularly connected to ace Chris Archer.
Now it appears the head of the Dodgers baseball division has plucked esteemed athletic trainer Ron Porterfield from the Rays.
According to Marc Tompkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Porterfield is joining the Dodgers organization in a position that will be based out of their Camelback Ranch facility:
Porterfield will serve as medical director with the Dodgers, working under former Rays baseball operations chief Andrew Friedman, to provide leadership, oversight and direction to their staff while based at the team’s Arizona facility.
“It wan an extremely difficult decision,” Porterfield said Friday. “I want to make clear how much the Rays organization means to me, and the people from the top to the bottom. They made me want to go to work. It’s been my home for 21 years.”
Of his 21 seasons spent with the Rays, Porterfield was the club’s head athletic trainer for the last 12. He joined the franchise in 1996 as a Minor League coordinator.
Prior to joining Tampa Bay, he spent nine seasons in the Houston Astros organization. In 2009, Porterfield and his Rays staff were named Major League Medical Staff of the Year by the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society. In 2013, he was selected to work the MLB All-Star Game.
