When Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi took control of the Dodgers front office, one of the first things they said they wanted to do was to make the team better defensively – especially up the middle. With that, they traded away All-Star second baseman Dee Gordon and lost Hanley Ramirez to free agency and acquired veteran second baseman Howie Kendrick and even more veteran shortstop Jimmie Rollins. They also acquired a boatload of utility infielders to join returning utility infielders Justin Turner, Darwin Barney and top farm hands Alex Guerrero and Erisbel Arruebarrena. With one full week of spring training games now in the books, it appears that Friedman and Zaidi have accomplished exactly what they set out to do – and have done so in grand fashion.

After six games, including one split-squad game, the Dodgers have committed only two errors through 54 innings of play – a fielding error by shortstop Darwin Barney (a Gold Glove-winning second baseman by trade) in the second game of the spring and a throwing error by new Dodgers second baseman Howie Kendrick in Monday’s 5-5 tie with the Giants in Scottsdale. While Barney’s error was a high chopper that simply ate him up and led to no runs scoring, Kendrick’s errant throw occurred in the middle of a 5-4-3 double play attempt with the 31-year-old former Angel launching his throw over the head of Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and into the stands. Unfortunately, that error prolonged a horrible inning by Dodger reliever Brandon League in which he allowed five runs on three hits and included a walk and a hit batsman.

In five major league seasons Darwin Barney has made a grand total of 24 errors, so the one he made in the second game of spring training should be of little concern for Dodger fans.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Setting these two errors aside, the Dodgers are tied with the Colorado Rockies for the fewest errors among the 15 Cactus League teams and trail only the errorless Pittsburg Pirates in the National League. As such, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has got to be ecstatic with the Dodgers defense thus far.

Howie Kendrick has a career fielding percentage of .985 at second base. He is also a four-time All-Star at the position. (Photo credit – Lisa Blumenfeld)

With the Dodger regulars likely to begin seeing more playing time in the next week or two, the first round of cuts are looming and will undoubtedly send a number of the non-roster invitees down to minor league camp, which is also in full swing right now on the backfields of Camelback Ranch. And while this is par for the course, it’s the guys on the 40-man roster that are going to make Friedman’s and Zaidi’s jobs a bit difficult in the coming weeks.

With the awkward situation in Dodgers infielder Alex Guerrero’s contract which states that he cannot be sent to the minor leagues, it is possible that five-year major leaguer (and, as noted, a former Gold Glove winner) Darwin Barney could be the guy to clear a roster spot for Guerrero. In spite of Barney’s MLB service time and his current one-year/$2.525 million contract, he is still under team control and has options whereas Guerrero does not and must be on the Dodgers 25-man roster; or be traded or cut. And with the 28-year-old Las Tunas, Cuba native in only the second year of his four-year/$28 million contract, and more importantly with him swinging a smoking hot bat in spring training right now, it is highly unlikely that the Dodgers will cut him. As for trading him (and his lofty contract), well that’s another story entirely.

But regardless of how this all plays out, it’s refreshing to see (and enjoyable to watch) the collective Dodgers team – including the late-inning reserves – playing exceptionally well across the board.

Now, if only Friedman’s and Zaidi’s other goal – the Dodgers bullpen – can live up to its hype as well.