The offseason has not exactly gotten off to a great start for the Los Angeles Dodgers in regards to their staff as they have lost some key coaches and front office members.
Among those no longer with the organization are third base and infield coach Chris Woodward, who is now the manager of the Texas Rangers and hitting coach Turner Ward, who took the same position with the Cincinnati Reds. One player who was really close with both of those coaches is Justin Turner, so naturally, he was a bit disappointing to see them go.
Another key loss for the Dodgers was general manager Farhan Zaidi. The rival San Francisco Giants hired him to lead their front office as president of baseball operations. “The Farhan one is real tough,” Turner said of the organization’s departures.
“I know everyone has kind of taken for granted the front office that we’ve had for the last four or five years here. All the brilliant guys that have slowly kind of started stepping away, like Alex [Anthopoulos] to the Braves and now Farhan to the Giants. Just the openness, the availableness, the honesty that he brought to the table as a general manager was something I had never experienced in baseball in any other organization.
“He was always around and open to having a conversation and he was very transparent with everyone that he talked to. So that’s definitely going to be missed. I wish him luck up there, not too much luck but hopefully, he can finish in second for a really long time.”
It’s not often that front office members build relationships with players on a personal level, so that speaks volumes to who Zaidi is as a person that Turner is not happy to see him go.
The Dodgers have not yet replaced Zaidi or any of their coaches, although president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said that is on his to-do list. The Dodgers may not replace Zaidi with one specific person though as the trio of Josh Byrnes, Brandon Gomes and Alex Slater are currently sharing his duties.
