Andrew Friedman struck out on the Dodgers’ urgent need for a closer
A funny thing blocked the way to another triumph of Andrew Friedman in the middle of the summer.
A failure of Andrew Friedman in the middle of the summer.
The Dodgers and their famous baseball boss came to beat on the baseball deadline on Thursday to get another mid-season field out of the park en route to a second consecutive championship of the Series du Monde.
They never removed the bat from their shoulder.
Removing the stick, looking.
Dodgers needed a closer. Six teams picked up proven closures. Dodgers were not one.
Mason Miller went to the Padres de San Diego, Camilo Doval at the New York Yankees, Griffin Jax to the Rays of Tampa Bay, Ryan Helsley at the New York Mets, Jhoan Duran at the Philadelphia Phillies and David Bednar at the New York Yankees.
Another lift went to the Dodgers. I think his name was Brock Stewart or something like that.
How does it make sense? Do they seek what we are looking at?
So you tell me that they have to go ahead during the rest of the season hoping that Tanner Scott is becoming healthy or that Kirby Yates becomes coherent or that Blake Treinen becomes younger or, maybe the Boston Red Sox has cut Walker Buehler and he returns for an more ninth round! It’s crazy, but this whole situation is crazy, a list of $ 400 million without anyone to launch the last.
The Dodger also entered Thursday needing a voltiseur with a defensive spirit. Four teams have found one. The Dodgers did not do so.
Harrison Bader went to the Phillies, Mike Yastrzemski and Randal Grichuk to the Royals of Kansas City, Austin Slater in Yankees and Cedric Mullins at the food.
The Dodgers picked up a voltiseur named Alex … Is this a call?
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So now, Dodger fans are haunted by the fear that Michael Comforto loses a fly ball on the left line on Halloween with the season on the line.
All this is so weird. That’s all, well, arrogant.
Admittedly, the Dodgers have the best baseball team on paper, but they have had their best team for several years and that has not prevented Friedman from dominating last week in July.
You could say that Friedman won the championship last year by brilliantly acquiring Jack Flaherty and Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech on the deadline.
This has always been Friedman’s strength, humbly adding talents to a group already having wealth of talent.
Remember, this is the period of the year he also exchanged for Rich Hill, Yu Darvish, Manny Machado, Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and Evan Phillips, who have all brought them deep into the playoffs.
The only two years in which Friedman groped the deadline? He failed to acquire pitch in 2022 and they were beaten by the Padres. He only provoked Lynn launched in 2023 and they were swept by Arizona diamonds.
It suddenly looks like one of these years.
“We had the impression that it was an incredibly talented group which, as we are in good health and that these guys struck their stride, we have the impression that we are in good position for another deep race in October,” said Director General Brandon Gomes during a call conference with journalists.
In other words, they think they are good enough so that they do not need to exchange prospects to win talents.
But are they? And even if they are, why try your luck?
If there is something, the first 109 games of this season have taught us, it is that the greatness of the Dodgers, like any size in a sport that has not had consecutive champions in a quarter of a decade, can be ephemeral.
The window suddenly seems to close slowly on the career of the Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman renown temple. Shohei Ohtani was so physically stressed that he left games with cramps.
Teoscar Hernández does not look like last year’s revelation. Max Muncy cannot stay in the field. And Edman hits pain that could last all season.
The rotation is also trembling, with the fragile Tyler Glasnow and the aging of Clayton Kershaw and Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell injured and, really, a single infallible starter is Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“Obviously, there has been a lot of action today throughout the match, and many teams have improved, but we feel really well in this group,” said Gomes. “When we arrived in the year, we felt that it was as talented from a list as we ever had. We are in a position where we are first of all, and I don’t even think we have played our best baseball to date. So, while we continue to recover some of our runners, then add these pieces, and our guys do not play in a different way about our potential, we always have a really strong team.
Thanks to their superb inaction on Thursday, the Dodgers clearly declared that they are good enough to win a championship without more help.
All these teams that have improved considerably do not agree.
The world of baseball feels a Dodger vulnerability, as if there was blue blood in the water.
Given the possibility of dissuading each from this notion, the dodgers sighed, raised their shoulders and passed.
A withdrawal of a day, a turning point of a season?
