The Los Angeles Dodgers announced they have hired Jeff Kingston to be their new vice president and assistant general manager. Kingston previously held the same title with the Seattle Mariners.
The news comes on the heels of president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman stating that he does not plan to hire a general manager to replace Farhan Zaidi this offseason. The decision stemmed from Friedman having several other matters to address.
Zaidi spent the last four seasons as the Dodgers’ general manager before leaving this offseason to take over as the president of baseball operations of the rival San Francisco Giants.
It is a bit unorthodox having someone on your staff with the title of assistant general manager when there is no general manager in place, but Kingston will presumably assume some of the roles that Zaidi used to handle.
Kingston spent the previous nine seasons in the Mariners front office, and before that, he served as the San Diego Padres director of baseball operations for seven years.
He graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA., in 1999 with a degree in economics.
Now that the front office and coaching staff seem to be in place, the Dodgers can shift their focus to the player side with the Winter Meetings getting underway this week in Las Vegas.
