When Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi took over as president of baseball operations and general manager, respectively, for the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2014 season, they had one goal and mind and that was to win a World Series for the franchise for the first time since 1988.
Through their first four years, they have not been able to reach that goal although they have gotten awfully close, winning the National League West in all four seasons and reaching the World Series in each of the last two.
After being defeated by the Boston Red Sox in 2018, rumors began to swirl about Zaidi potentially leaving the organization as the rival San Francisco Giants were reportedly showing interest in him to be their president of baseball operations.
The Giants had Zaidi at the top of their list, and it appears they have got their man as according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, Zaidi has accepted the job to head up their front office:
The #sfgiants have a new head of baseball ops. Farhan Zaidi has taken the job, I’m told.
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) November 7, 2018
Zaidi will never see his goal to put the Dodgers back at the top of the Major League Baseball world come to fruition, but the opportunity with the Giants was one he simply could not pass up.
For the Dodgers now, finding a new general manager to replace him will be at the top of their to-do list this winter, and they will likely look to do it quick as this is a big offseason for them.
The Dodgers already worked out an extension with long-time ace Clayton Kershaw, but they still need to do the same with manager Dave Roberts in addition to filling all of the other holes on their roster.
Losing Zaidi at a time like this is obviously not ideal, but Friedman and his staff are as prepared as anybody in the league so they will make due until another general manager is put in place.
