Up until the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda, their number of failed acquisitions this offseason was greater than their number roster additions.
Brett Anderson accepted the Dodgers’ one-year, $15.8 million qualifying offer, but Zack Greinke spurned Los Angeles and the San Francisco Giants in favor of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Dodgers reached an agreement to trade for Aroldis Chapman at the Winter Meetings, however it came undone after a report surfaced of the closer’s involvement in an alleged domestic violence incident.
While some believed the Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds would at some point re-visit trade talks, Cincinnati ultimately dealt Chapman to the New York Yankees.
Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi said recently the organization was not comfortable moving forward with the trade as details of Chapman’s incident came to light.
Speaking after Maeda’s introductory press conference, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman recapped what the club takes into consideration as it relates to roster matters. “There are a lot of factors that go into personnel decisions,” he said.
“The fit of the player in terms of their ability and there’s also contractual fit. A lot of different things factor into decision we make.” Several weeks into the offseason, the Dodgers’ most notable signing appeared to be Hisashi Iwakuma.
After spending the last four seasons with the Seattle Mariners, Iwakuma appeared bound for Los Angeles on a three-year, $45 million contract. However, the deal fell apart due to a failed physical.
The Dodgers nearly went through a similar situation with Maeda, as a physical he took revealed “irregularities.” Naturally, the situation caused a bit of déjà vu for Friedman.
“Yeah, except for we hand’t been engaged at that point,” he said. “We got [Maeda’s physical results] on the front end and had that information, and pivoted to thinking about other things. Then, we collectively kind of came up with a potential structure scenario that could work for both sides and we spent time then hammering it out.”
Despite the several ups-and-downs the Dodgers have endured, Friedman doesn’t necessarily view this offseason as any different from others.
“This offseason has taken on more twists and turns publicly. A lot of times during the offseason there are a lot of twists and turns and things where you feel you’re on the verge of that change that are just not public,” he said.
“So from that standpoint, it wasn’t necessarily unusual in that you always spend a lot of time going through different scenarios that you end up having to change course. So, you have to have alternate plans and different options. We felt we were really prepared in terms of ways to to pivot if certain things played out in different ways.”
With the dust settled — at least for now — Friedman is pleased with the Dodgers’ current state. “This offseason we feel we’ve added a number of really good players to our existing core and we’re excited about the group that we have.”
