Best Free Agent Signings by Friedman

                           Andrew Friedman is entering his 11th year as the President of Baseball Operations for the Dodgers. Since he got the job in November of 2014, he has signed a lot of free agent players. Some panned out, many did not.  Ned Colletti made some decent signings when he was running the team, but he is more known for two of the worst signings than he is for signing a good player. The bad ones?  Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt. His most remembered would probably be Justin Turner in 2014.  

                          One thing Andrew has that Colletti did not, is an ownership with DEEP POCKETS. His first major signing was Brandon McCarthy in Dec of 2014. McCarthy got 4/48 from LA. Production wise, this was not one of AF’s better moves. McCarthy would pitch in 33 games over the three years he was a Dodger with an 11-7 record and 4.51 ERA. He was sent to Atlanta in the Kemp trade in 2018. 

                          That first season, he loaded up on pitching, mostly relievers. He did sign starter Brett Anderson to a one-year deal. AF got more from Anderson for the 10 million than he did from McCarthy. Anderson made 31 starts and had a sub 4 ERA, with a 10-9 record. He started one game in the LDS against the Mets and lost. But most of his signings that year were what I like to call, AAA fodder. A few would be called up to fill in for injured players. But none made a huge impact.

                          One notable free agent he signed in the fall of 2015 was outfielder, Andrew Toles. We can only wonder what could have been with Andrew. In 16-17 and 18, he would play a total of 92 games as a Dodger. Those 92 games were pretty impressive. Toles had been released by the Rays for disciplinary reasons. He started the 2016 season with high A Rancho, he was promoted to Tulsa and finally to OKC. He was called up on July 8th. He played in 48 games, hitting .314 with 3 homers and 16 driven in. In 11 games in the post season he hit .364. 

                           In 2017, he was the Dodgers leadoff hitter and starting CF against RHP. On May 9th, he tore the ACL in his right knee. He had season ending surgery and was on the IL the rest of the season. He hit .271 in 31 games with 5 homers and 15 driven in. In 2018, he would play in only 17 games. He spent most of the year at OKC, hitting .306 in 71 games. Andrew did not report to spring training in 2019 and was placed on the restricted list. He finally did report on April 30th but left 30 days later to be with his family. 

                           It was finally reported that Toles was dealing with mental health issues including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Toles at one point was living behind Key West Airport. He was arrested by police when he refused to leave. Since 2018, the Dodgers have signed Toles to a contract so that he can have access to the team’s health insurance. He is still on the restricted list and in the care of his father. I think giving Toles a contract just so he can have his health checked is one of the classier things the Dodgers have done. 

                           They signed Kenta Maeda in the spring of 2016. This was one of the more creative contracts they would give out since there were concerns about Maeda’s arm and possible injury issues. But they got a lot of bang for their buck from Kenta before he was finally traded to the Twins. One of those under the radar type signings that paid dividends in 16 was Joe Blanton. Blanton became a trusted back of the pen piece and pitched in 75 games for LA logging 80 innings with a 2.48 ERA, 7 wins and 2 losses. Joe pitched well in the LDS against the Nat’s, unscored on in 4 games. But the Cubbies lit him up in the LCS. 

                           Going into 2017, AF concentrated on bringing back his own free agents before anything else. Rich Hill, JT and Kenley were his first priority’s, and he had the three of them all under new contracts by Jan 10th, 2017.  On the 17 of that month, he made another under the radar signing when he inked reliever, Brandon Morrow to a deal. Morrow at the time was a 32-year-old MLB veteran with 10 years under his belt. He had a contract that would allow him to declare for free agency if he was not called up by a certain date.

                          To tell the truth, he was not exactly wowing anyone at OKC. He was 0-5 with a 7.20 ERA when they finally called him up. He did have 6 saves at the time. But in LA, he was transformed. Morrow pitched in 45 games. He won 6, lost none and had 2 saves. He struck out 50 in 43.2 innings. What was most impressive, he did not allow a single homer. In the Dodgers playoff run he pitched in 14 games out of 15. He pitched in all 7 games of the World Series. His ERA in those games was 3.95. He was touched for 1 homer in the LDS and 2 in the World Series against the Astros. But all of that damage came in one game, game 5 in Houston where it was later shown that the Astros were stealing signs. Also signed early in the year was a former A’s player who was out of the game. At the end of April, they signed Max Muncy to a minor league contract. Muncy would play 110 games at OKC that year, hitting .309 with 12 homers and driving in 44. 9 games into the 2018 season with OKC, he was called up to Los Angeles. He has been with the Dodgers ever since and has hit 190 homers for LA. 

                        If you look back, up to this point, the Dodgers had not signed a single franchise changing free agent. Most of the signings were role players or AAA fodder. How long could Friedman keep this up and not have the fan base screaming for his head? In 2018 he brought back Chase Utley, a move most LA fans loved. In March of 18, they signed a young Cuban player, Andy Pages as a amateur free agent. In April they signed Daniel Hudson. Huddie would pitch in 40 games. He and Utley were the only two free agents of any consequence. Hudson would leave as a free agent and help DC win the championship in 19. He would return to LA in 2022. 

                     He resigned Ryu in Nov of 2018. And in December of that year, he signed Joe Kelly, not one of his more popular signings, but certainly one of his more colorful. Mariachi Joe is quite the character. He signed AJ Pollock to a four-year deal in January of 19. Pollock would play well during his time as a Dodger. In December of 2019, he signed Blake Treinen. Treinen, despite missing significant time in 22, has been one of the most reliable relievers since he signed with the team. He has pitched in 29 post season games for the Dodgers. He has a 3-2 record with 4 saves. During his time in LA, he has pitched in 154 games with a 17-12 record, 9 saves and a sparkling 2.29 ERA in 149.2 innings. I sincerely hope he is re-signed this winter. 

                     After losing the 2019 LDS to the Nationals, the Dodgers had a lot of holes to fill with many players becoming free agents. They signed Alex Wood, bringing him back a year after trading him to the Braves. Wood would pitch in just 9 games for the 2020 team. The big move came of February 10th when they made the trade with Boston for Mookie Betts. Just before the season started on July 23rd, they signed LHRP Jake McGee. McGee would pitch in 24 games for the Dodgers. He had a 3-1 record and a 2.66 ERA. He pitched 4 games in the playoffs. 

                    After winning the World Series in 2020, some key players left via free agency. Kike, Joc Pederson. They re-signed Treinen and JT. The big signing was 2020 Cy Young winner, Trevor Bauer. Bauer got a huge 3-year deal for over 100 million dollars. It would prove to be a costly signing. As usual, Freidman also signed guys like Steven Souza Jr, and Kevin Quackenbush. But the most significant free agent signing, at least to me, was the signing of Albert Pujols on May 17th, after his release by the Angels. Tio Albert would become a fan favorite and have some really big hits for the Dodgers. 

                   They chased the Giants most of the year and would finish 1 game back in the West, the only time they have not won the division since 2013. Friedman made his big move at the deadline when he traded for Scherzer and Trea Turner. Scherzer was a need since Bauer had been suspended. Turner was a bonus. In August the Dodgers finally signed a pitcher fans had wanted for years, Cole Hamels. But Hamels would never suit up for the team. He did pick up Evan Phillips off waivers in August. 

                     They beat the Cardinals in the wild card, then defeated the Giants in five games in the LDS, but with the pitching as depleted as it was from injuries, the loss of power hitter Max Muncy to injurie on the last day of the season, they just could not muster enough pitching to beat the Braves after they went down 3-1.  They had some more big-name free agents leaving that winter.  Scherzer, Jansen, Pujols, Seager. Taylor was also a free agent, but AF resigned him to a 4-year deal.

                    Scott Alexander was a free agent, along with Kelly, and Knebel.  So, Friedman started signing some pitchers beginning with Andrew Heaney on a 1-year deal. After pitching for the Nationals for three years, he signed Hudson. Kershaw was resigned in March along with former Giants reliever, Reyes Montoya. March also saw the signings of Yency Almonte, Tyler Anderson, Danny Duffy and Jake Lamb. Then Friedman finally landed a big fish free agent. Freddie Freeman, fresh off of a World championship with the Braves, was signed to a six-year contract. 

                    They kept signing guys right up until spring training bringing in Kevin Pillar and Hanser Alberto. Alberto would set a MLB record for appearances by a position player as a pitcher with 10. The last move before the season started saw LA trade AJ Pollock to the White Sox for Craig Kimbrel.  Some signings after the season started did not work out like the signing of former Yankee, Dellin Betances and signing Pedro Baez who had been let go by the Astros. The Dodgers would win 111 games in 2022. Led by Betts, Freeman and Trea Turner. They got a great season out of Tyler Anderson. Then they got knocked out in the LDS by the Padres. Probably one of the more embarrassing losses they had ever suffered. 

               Andrew had more holes to fill and work to do after the 22 season. They lost Anderson, Heaney, Trea Turner, JT, Kimbrel, Price, Alberto, Bellinger and Rios to free agency. Bellinger had been non-tendered. A surprise to some, but not to others. The plan was to replace Turner at SS with Gavin Lux, Muncy would take over third for JT. Vargas was expected to play either second base or left field. 

             They started reloading with some relatively low-cost replacements by signing Jason Heyward and then David Peralta. Heyward was paid the MLB minimum by LA since he was still under his last year of his long-term deal with the Cubs. In December they brought in Noah Syndergaard, then they signed JD Martinez to be the full time DH, again on a low-cost contract. They were finally able to release Trevor Bauer but still had to pay his salary. 

             The best laid plans to not always work out. Lux was injured in a spring game in February and lost for the year. Vargas, who started spring with a broken finger, never did get untracked. James Outman made the team out of spring training and became the regular center fielder. Heyward would play RF sometimes to allow Betts to play second, and Miguel Rojas played the majority of the games at SS. Peralta usually played LF against RHP with Chris Taylor out there against lefties. But they brought in some help at the deadline when they brought Kike back and traded for Amed Rosario. He made another under the radar signing when they signed Ryan Brasier. He would become an important part of the bullpen. 

            The team won the division again, winning 100 or more for the fifth time since 2017. Once again, they were embarrassed in the playoffs. Injuries to the pitching staff had hamstrung them enough that one of the best pitchers they had was rookie Bobby Miller. Kershaw tried to make a go of it but got hammered in game one. Lance Lynn, the big deadline pickup gave up 4 homers in one inning in the deciding game 3 against Arizona. They had lost Julio Urias, to a suspension by the league for violation of the spousal abuse clause. Urias is a free agent who has not been allowed to sign with any team until MLB makes their final judgement, and he fulfills all the conditions ordered by the court. 

         The Dodgers went into last winter looking to bolster the offense against LHP, shore up the starting pitching, and bolster the bullpen. Martinez, Brasier, Kershaw, Kike, Heyward, Peralta, Rosario, Urias, Hudson, Kelly, Lynn, were all free agents. Heyward, Kike, Kersh, Brasier, Hudson and Kelly were all resigned. Then on the 11th of December, AF landed the biggest free agent he will probably ever sign, Shohei Ohtani decided to sign with the Dodgers. A massive 10-year-700-million-dollar deal.

           Of course, what we did not know at the time was that 680 million of the deal was deferred to the back end of the contract. He will then receive 68 million a year for the next 10 years. He wasn’t done. On December 27th, they signed Japanese star, Yoshi Yamamoto to a 12-year contract. They traded for Tyler Glasnow and immediately extended him. Shohei was signed despite him not being able to pitch until 2025. Then in January, he signed Teoscar Hernandez to a one-year deal. Teo would prove to be a gem.  He added starting pitcher, James Paxton at the end of January and basically had re-tooled the entire pitching staff. We all know what a magical, and extremely stressful season 2024 was. 

            The pitching staff saw every single pitcher who started the season in the rotation go down to injury. Two pitchers who had been out for an extended period made their comebacks. Treinen became a huge part of the bullpen again. Walker Buehler missed almost two whole years to his second TJ surgery. And although his season stats were nothing to write home about, he stepped up his game when needed the most and fittingly pitched the 9th inning of the deciding win in game 5. 

               Ohtani recorded the first 50-50 season in baseball history, he achieved that in a game where he went 6-6 with 3 homers and 10 RBI’s. They lost Betts and Muncy for extended periods of time, even the everyday Freddie Freeman was forced to miss a couple of weeks when his son became very ill. He was then hobbled by a bad ankle going into the playoffs, but he overcame that to have a monster World Series. 

                 Going into the off season this year, LA has several roster issues to address.  Kike, Flaherty, Teo, Buehler, Kelly and Treinen are all free agents. I do not think all six of them will be back. I do believe that they bring Treinen back. I hope they resign Buehler. But Kike, Flaherty and Teo, are iffy at best. I would love to see Teo back for at least 3 years. Kershaw has already said he will be back for one more year, just when is up in the air with his shoulder surgery. Will Ohtani be ready to pitch by the beginning of the year? He too had shoulder surgery on his non-throwing arm. 

               Rumors are rampant at this point. Many fans want them to sign Juan Soto, others not so much. Where it once seemed like they were a lock to sign Japanese star, Roki Sasaki, a lot of chatter on baseball sites say otherwise.  They supposedly met with Soto and Boras on Tuesday, but Soto is not expected to sign before the winter meetings. Most likely it won’t be until after Christmas. They are rumored to have interest in Snell, Burnes, Adames and just about every other free agent out there. But as usual, Andrew is pretty silent on these things. One thing is for sure, the team that takes the field next March to defend its title, will have some new faces. Just who? We will have to wait and see.