After yet another disappointing playoff exit and seeing their World Series championship drought increase to 31 years, the Los Angeles Dodgers entered the offseason with an open mind to potentially shaking up the roster.
For several weeks there were more subtractions than additions, plus notable misses in free agency. The club signed Blake Treinen to bolster the bullpen, but lost a pair of left-handed starting pitchers in Hyun-Jin Ryu and Rich Hill on the open market.
The Dodgers also failed to reel in one of the top free agents, watching the likes of Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg sign elsewhere.
The inactivity led to frustration among the fanbase, which eventually subsided when the Dodgers traded for Mookie Betts and David Price just before the start of Spring Training.
While criticism and frustration were mounting, Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten reiterated he was more focused on helping the organization sustain its success rather than “win” the offseason headlines.
It’s a philosophy that Kasten has carried with him through previous stints with the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals as well. However, some point to his six World Series losses as evidence he should change his approach.
Kasten defended his track record and believes a couple of his World Series defeats easily could have went the other way, via Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times:
“To be fair, I have been with teams in my career that went to the World Series seven times, that’s not an accident, it’s also not something I’m embarrassed by,” Kasten said. “Of the six times those teams did not win, two lost in Game 7, and two lost in Game 6. That does not suggest to me a philosophy that is … amiss and needs to be completely revamped.”
In nearly two decades with the Braves, Kasten led the organization to 12 division titles, five National League pennants and one World Series championship.
Since becoming Dodgers president in 2012, the club has enjoyed similar success with seven NL West titles and two trips to the Fall Classic. However, a World Series championship has continued to elude the organization since 1988.
With Betts and Price added to an already-talented roster, the Dodgers were primed to enter the 2020 regular season as one of the World Series favorites. That presumably will still hold true if and when teams manage to take the field, but in a season that’s expected to be unlike any other, the greater the chance for unexpected results.
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