When Dodgers newly appointed President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman met with the media for the first time last Friday morning, he didn’t have answers to many of the questions posed to him. Although Friedman did say that current Dodgers manager Don Mattingly would manage the team in 2015, he dodged the question as to who, if anybody, was the front-runner to fill the vacant general manager position.

“Um… you know we’re having conversations… we’re having a lot of conversations with a lot of different people,” said Friedman. “I don’t know exactly how  things will evolve at this point but we’ll obviously keep you guys posted.”

Friedman was a bit evasive when asked if he was going to hire a general manager to replace Ned Colletti. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

Friedman toe-tapped his way around another important decision facing the Dodgers – who, if anybody, was going to fill the Director of Player Development position created when De Jon Watson left that position to become Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations for the Arizona Diamondbacks?

“Um… we started… a… you know… kinda coming up with a list and it will be another topic of conversation in the very near future,” answered Friedman.

Now granted, given the fact that Friedman has been on the job less than a week, it is certainly understandable that he isn’t up to speed on a lot of things yet, but building up the farm system through player development is clearly at the top of his ‘To Do’ list.

“If we ever have to go out to the free agent market to consistently and constantly rebuild, it’s not a viable business model, it’s not a viable situation for us to be competitive year after year,” said Friedman. “Having a robust farm system is important in a lot of different ways. It’s important to be able to supplement your major league team and it’s also important to be able to use certain guys to go out and get things that you need, whether it’s in the off-season or in July.”

When the press conference concluded, Friedman was kind enough to meet with the written media guys for a more in-depth Q and A session. I took this opportunity to delve into this “robust farm system” thing a little deeper.

“My focus is creating the best roster we can in 2015 and subsequent rosters, and putting ourselves in a position to sustain success,” said Friedman. “Each year things play out in different ways. We don’t have hard and fast rules but we’re going to do everything we can to not only win in 2015 but to put ourselves in position to sustain it over the long haul.”

Based on the tremendous successes that Friedman had in player development as general manager of the small-market Tampa Bay Rays, it’s hard not to be optimistic about what he will be able to accomplish in player development with the Dodgers. The big difference, of course, is that Friedman will now have to deal with a much higher draft pick number every year than he was accustomed to with the Rays. But regardless, you can bet that he will be very involved in the drafting process – with or without a GM or player development director.