Coming off a season in which they won a third consecutive National League West division title for the first time in franchise history, the Los Angeles Dodgers have been under heavy scrutiny after getting eliminated from the NL Division Series by the New York Mets.
Zack Greinke bolted for Arizona, a trade for Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman fell apart, and an agreement with Hisashi Iwakuma came undone amid a failed physical.
The Dodgers also saw Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija sign with the rival San Francisco Giants. On top of losing Greinke, Los Angeles will be led by rookie manager Dave Roberts next season.
Pressure is certainly on the Dodgers and team president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten recently downplayed the scrutiny and simply chalked it up to coming with the territory.
As for Friedman, ESPN’s Buster Olney ranked the Dodgers executive behind only Boston Red Sox ace David Price among those facing pressure in 2016:
2. Andrew Friedman, Los Angeles Dodgers president: He is in his second full season of running the Dodgers’ baseball operations, and already his work is under enormous scrutiny because of how the team bought for the highest price and operating with a record payroll has been outbid repeatedly in the past six months. The Rangers boxed out the Dodgers for Cole Hamels in July, and then the Diamondbacks jumped into the bidding late for Zack Greinke; reportedly, the Dodgers were also in on the conversations for Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake, and didn’t land either.
Friedman inherited a flawed club last October and worked with general manager Farhan Zaidi and a revamped front office to create a more fluid roster complete with improved depth.
While that’s been accomplished, Friedman’s group has primarily come under fire for failing to trade for a premier starting pitcher last season and not re-signing Greinke or signing a frontline starter this offseason.
Now one year into his tenure and with a handpicked manager in place, next season figures to be more of an indictment on Friedman than 2015 was.
