We are in our nation's capital and we're joined right now by the Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman. Andrew, thanks a lot for the time. And I always love it when it's good mood.
Andrew, Yeah, that's fleeting. I think it. You know, you can always tell what mood I'm in based on how we're playing.
Here's something I used to cover the Lakers when Phil Jackson was coaching, and he said he never evaluated any of his teams until probably a quarterway through the season.
Do you look at it big picture like that?
And also on a day to day basis, how do you view it this early in the season.
Yeah, I mean I think you know where we will really take stock is basically a third of the season, get through May and get a real feel for things. That being said, we feel it intensely every day, and so tell not to overreact to things that are you know, happening in a moment in time and try to get a bigger, broader perspective before making you know, big changes.
When you look at the team so far, obviously, offense has got to be the biggest strength. Is it performing the way you envisioned it when you put this together.
No, which is actually pretty exciting. I think there's a lot more in there. Offensively, We've had some games with some really timely hits, which has helped, and it's helped us put some points on the board, but just the consistency of our offense up and down hasn't really been there. A lot of our runs, feels like, have come via the home run, which is great to have the ability to hit the ball all of the park. It's not as great when we're relying on it as it kind
of feels like. But this is a really dynamic, talented offense, and you know, in a lot of ways, feel good about where we are record wise, because I think from a fundamental standpoint offensively, we haven't played to our ability yet, which is great being that these wins are in the bank, and feel like there's even more upside from here.
I know you block out a lot of the noise, but I get to hear it all. So after starting out eight and oh you were unbeatable, now the team has lost three of the last four and all of a sudden, the sky's falling, The defense is horrible.
How do you keep that perspective?
Yeah, well, I'm glad that you feel them. People of Los Angeles are really lucky to have you to as their outleot.
I'm a therapist at times.
Yes, yes, you know, I think any you know this season is a series of daily narratives.
When we win, things couldn't be any better.
When we lose, the sky's falling and totally get that, and fans are right. Our defense has been really poor the last three or four days. We haven't played well fundamentally, but that's not who we are, and I will bet a lot that that's not how we will play going forward. So while frustrating looking back, everything for us is about looking forward and making a bet on what we think
will happen. And I will bet on this team being good defensively and you know, doing what we need to to keep runs off the board and with our offense be able to score more than we allow and win a lot of games.
Andrew, I'm not sure we fully appreciate it as you did. How good Tommy Edman is playing every day. And we were all a little looking at you sideways when you said a couple of off seasons ago you had two guys at the top of your board.
Otani and Tommy Edman.
But I believe we've started to see and we saw it when you acquired him last year, just how good he is and what you saw.
Yeah, I mean that makes it sound like we had those guys is like one and two in the league. It was more just guys that we felt like really fit us and we're going to be you know, really guys we could potentially acquire elsewhere. Obviously, Tommy's played great. It's been more power than what I expected, more home runs, but just doing all the little things on the Field's ability to play infield, outfield, run the base is just
what kind of baseball player he is. Even on days he goes oh for he can help us win a game in different ways. So those are the kind of players that we really like, and he fits our rosters so well.
How long did you have that vision or want for tom Y Edmund Obviously you have to be patient in certain circumstances with teams, But how long had you been feeling Tom Edman would be a great fit for this team.
I mean really since early on with Saint Louis, but it wasn't realistic then more in the last like two two and a half years, they started entertaining the thought of it. That's where you know, we spent a lot of time trying to acquire them for a couple of years and then felt fortunate to kind of line up on that convoluted three way last July.
Hey, it worked out.
Michael Kopek and Tommy Edman were a big part of the Dodgers run last year and this year as well as far as the depth of the organization. You take a lot of pride in that you going to give Yamamoto an extra day of rest tomorrow, Blake Snail's on the IL and you have the luxury of having a guy like Justin Robletski and Landon nak be here. What can you say about just your starting five in Oklahoma City at double A and being able to have this luxury.
Yeah, I mean we've talked about it a lot, you know, the scouting and player development groups, the work that they have done, just how connected they are, the value we've been able to create. You know, it's one of my favorite things. When we met with Showhy before we signed them, and you know, going through our organization and talking about our farm system, you know, and got into how everything in the system is designed for us to have a bottom farm system. We pick at the end of the draft.
We have less draft money to spend. Our international pool is less than everyone in July every year, we're trading away players to get, you know, shorter term players for an October push. Everything is designed for us to be at the bottom. But we're top five and Joy stops me and he just goes how, which I think really speaks volumes to the work that our scouting and player
development group does. And so with as talents as our major league team is, we got a lot of talent coming as well, and for us to be able to do what we're doing on the pitching side right now, and just a number of guys that we could have a discussion about, yeah, who would come.
Up and pitch these games.
And you know, with Tony Gonson on his way back and Kersh and Blake coming back, you know, opportunities can come and go, and it's hard to predict when things will happen. But to ROBO's credit, to Knacker's credit, they've done everything they could to be ready for this opportunity. And we feel very fortunate to have guys like that ready to step in.
So you weren't considering an Otani spot start today or tomorrow.
Not yet.
It's coming, but not yet.
What can you tell us about the design for Otani this season and how you view his pitching season.
Yeah, I mean, I think for us it's interesting in that had he not had left shoulder surgery, you know, maybe the timing would look a little bit different. But with it, we said, hey, let's make sure we strengthen that and get that ready, which then slowed down the throwing rushing a little bit and just kind of pushed
everything back. And the biggest thing for us is we'd much other error on the side of caution with him in this on this front, and so we kind of got him going just to make sure everything was in order able to you know, make sure his delivery is in a good spot ball was coming out of his hand.
Then kind of slowed it down some in that it was never realistic for him to be able to go wire to wire, you know, April through a long October run and so you know, he started theming bullpens again and we'll start to build him up and get that going.
We're not going to try to cut any corners. We're going to take our time and figure it out and basically figure out each step based just on how he's recovering and making sure that things are going really well with the idea of when we go get him back to have him plug in and be a big part of our pitching staff through October.
How does that happen?
How do you thread the needle with a player that is so unique and how much he means to your offense. Usually a guy would go out on a few rehab starts. How do you get him ready for a game when that's not an option?
Yeah, I mean, he's one of one, So all of this is kind of uncharted territory for us as well. I think communication is key, and you know, it's one of those things that he's almost got like a split personality. He's got his offensive mindset and then the pitching and he's got his routine dialed on the offensive side and on the pitching side. When he gets to a point
of facing hitters. We can get guys in from Rancho, We can set up ZIM games, We can do things that simulate a minor league outing at two o'clock, give him time to go nap in the in the quiet room and then come back out and dh and hit laid off four set.
All right, Andrew, this looks like a great room too, here in the bowels of National's Park. I'm not sure if anybody could take a nap here.
No, but I think anytime you're in the vicinity of Danny Lehman, you know it's gonna be a good day.
Oh yeah, that's Stringy here.
That's always standing right next to Dave Roberts, and that Dodger dugout is always nearby.
Have you noticed Harris kind of no man's land right now? He can't decide whether he's gonna let it flow or cut it more business like, he's cutting no man's land. So fans, if you have any feedback for him, he would welcome it.
No doubt.
A man that never speaks only in the dugout. Outside of the dugout, you will never hear from Dodger bench coach Danny Lehman. Andrew, thanks a lot for the time. Always great to see you. It's been a fun trip so far, and we'll keep going with this ride.
Wow, we'd like to win a few more games.
Here in this trip. Yeah, you will.
You will, No panic, Andrew, I'm here the voice of reason.
Thank you, thank you,