The Los Angeles Dodgers have established a system where they feel they can be competitive every season without needing to rebuild because of how well they manage their payroll and develop players.
Their success has given them the formula that every team wants to replicate, which often causes other teams to try to hire front office personnel and coaches away from L.A.
Two of the Dodgers’ postseason opponents last year were run by executives who used to be in their front office. The Atlanta Braves are led by Alex Anthopoulos, who spent two years as the Dodgers vice president of baseball operations; and the San Francisco Giants are run by Farhan Zaidi, who was the Dodgers’ general manager from 2014 to 2018.
Although the Dodgers continuously lose talented coaches and executives, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman believes they are able to withstand those departures and continue getting better because of how well each part of their organization is synced up, via AM 570 L.A. Sports Radio:
“I think there are other really well-run teams, and I felt that way years ago as well. I think each market is so unique and different, that for us, we’ve lost so many employees over the last four or five years. We get 15 permission requests or so a year of people coming and trying to poach our personnel. I don’t think it’s any one person — including me. I think it’s the collective group and what we’ve been able to accomplish in terms of being on the same page. That doesn’t mean not disagreeing, but being in sync in so many different areas that requires so many different people to be able to do that.
“I think that is what’s going to have real staying power for us, and I’m sure others have some form of that. How good, I don’t really know. But for the most part, just really focused on our group our various departments. How well synced up and how well we work together is a very critical component to me in terms of staying on the same page. Not being afraid to disagree, but continuing to get better at everything we do. We’re better today than we were three years ago, and I’ll be really disappointed if we’re not way better two years from now than we are today.”
The Dodgers thus far have avoided losing front office personnel this winter despite senior vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes and assistant general manager Brandon Gomes being among the most popular names for other clubs looking seeking new leadership.
Byrnes previously was also the subject of interest after the 2020 season, when the Philadelphia Phillies were in search of a new president of baseball operations.
Philadelphia turned to L.A. in 2018 to hire Dodgers director of player development Gabe Kapler as their new manager. Kapler now is the manager of Giants and believes his club is on the path to becoming sustainable winners like the Dodgers currently are.
Zaidi: Diminishing the Dodgers because payroll is “total nonsense”
Since Friedman took over as the president of baseball operations ahead of the 2015 regular season, L.A. has posted a record of 634-399, which is good for a 61% winning percentage. In that same time span, no other team has a win percentage above 59%.
Despite the Dodgers’ clear success, there are often criticisms of how they have done it, specifically because of their unrivaled payroll, which is an advantage as it has reached more than $316 million at its peak and is currently around $270 million now. However, it is not the main reason for their success.
What makes the Dodgers’ operation so successful is every part of the organization is a talented group of people who work together well, according to Zaidi, who called it “total nonsense” to dismiss their accomplishments because of the payroll.
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