December 8th, 2018 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka With the 2018 MLB Winter Meetings set to kick off this Sunday at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman met with reporters at Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon to share what their plans and hopes are heading into the annual meetings.
“In terms of acute needs, I think figuring out what we’re going to do at catcher with [Austin Barnes] is something we need to figure out,” Friedman said. “We’ve got two kids in Will Smith and Keibert Ruiz who we really like, so even if it’s a bridge guy or potentially someone longer term – we’re kind of staying open-minded to it – but we also believe that Barnsey will have a way better 2019 than 2018. That’s a bet we’re comfortable making on him.”
(Photo credit – Kelvin-Kuo)
Friedman quickly added what every Dodger fan on the planet learned down the stretch of the 2018 season and through the postseason – that they are in desperate need of bullpen help.
“And then just to continue augmenting the bullpen,” he said. “I think every off-season, every July, it’s just always a focus, and there’s some interesting guys out there right now that we’re spending time on and talking to, and we will see where that goes.”
Friedman admits that they are in a favorable position to negotiate heading into the Winter Meeting because of their abundance of very good – and controllable – outfielders.
“We have some surplus. Until Major League Baseball lets us play a rover in the outfield…,” he kidded. “We have five, six starting-caliber outfielders, that feels a little piggish. So, I think that it’s something that we’ll explore.”
The Dodger boss acknowledged that they also have a few extra starting pitchers that can potentially be used as trade chips next week.
”And then obviously our rotation, we have some depth there as well,” said Friedman.
Friedman summed it all up with the confidence that we’ve come to expect from the Dodgers’ top executive.
“Not sure exactly how things will play out, but we feel really good about our jumping-off point right now in terms of the basic talent that we have,” he said. “We feel very confident that if the season started tomorrow, we’d be in a position to contend for a championship.
“So, it’s about maintaining the strength we have, addressing the weaknesses that we have, and making us even stronger,” Friedman concluded.
Noticeably missing at Friday’s presser was the guy who was always at Friedman’s side for these things, former Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi who, just last month, took a job with the San Francisco Giants in a near-identical role to Friedman’s – president of baseball operations for The Hated Ones. When asked when he plans to fill the GM vacancy created by Zaidi’s departure, Friedman’s answer was anything but surprising.
“This off-season has been too chaotic on a number of fronts to be able to slow the game enough to focus on that,” Friedman said. “We got a really talented group of people in the office and everybody’s kind of stepped up and done a little bit more.”
Needless to say, there’s going to be a lot of high-stakes gambling going on in Las Vegas over the next week … and not just in the casinos.
Stay tuned…
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Attempting to read between the lines: Dodgers are not going to overpay for Realmuto as they like both Smith and Ruiz. A guy that I think Dodgers may target is Twins’ catcher Jason Castro. Torn meniscus last May cost him most of the season, but has been a good defensive catcher, very good arm, and hits LH with good stats against RH pitchers — a good guy to pair with the RH hitting Barnes. Puig and catching prospect Conner Wong? Puig and Castro both on expiring contracts.
I’d like to think the Dodgers could find a better bargain than Jason Castro, if it would take Puig and Wong to get him as you suggest. Castro is coming off a 63 AB season (striking out about 1/3 the time as usual) after May 2018 season ending knee surgery (his second knee surgery). This health question mark coupled with his expiring $8M contract seems like he should come VERY cheap if Dodgers pursue him!
I’d much rather see Puig (if he’s traded) and Wong as part of a Bauer/Hand mega-deal.
Conner Wong may be too high a prospect to include (no. 16) but reading his scouting report appears to be a utility player in waiting. I don’t think Puig’s value is a high as you (apparently) and is projected to earn $11.3MM whereas Castro will be paid $8MM; Twins will want something in return to off set the $3.3MM difference.
Yes, I think Puig is VERY valuable. Entering the final year of his 7 yr, $42M contract he produced the following the first six years:
2013, 4.74 WAR, .925 OPS
2014, 5.07 WAR, .862 OPS
2015, 1.11 WAR, .751 OPS
2016, 1.27 WAR, .739 OPS
2017, 3.74 WAR, .831 OPS
2018, 2.69 WAR, .821 OPS
Puig may be one of the best signings in Dodgers History and Ned’s greatest move. Especially considering his ability to put butts into the seats.
Rather than trading Puig, I want to see him extended for 3-4 years at $13-15M/season. That seems like a better investment than Harper at $30-40M for 10+ years.
Hernandez 3.2; Pederson 2.3; Bellinger 4.2; Taylor 4.1 WAR in 2018 making substantially less money than Puig. Extend him even for $13MM — no thanks
The Winter Meetings are usually very interesting even if nothing happens.
A stop gap catcher appears to be the direction, if Dodgers see that what marlins would be asking for Realmuto is beyond excessive. Again, as far as the OF goes, one way to resolve this at the outset is to return Bellinger to 1st FULL TIME where he is already a Gold Glove there. If that means parting with Muncy, who many feel will NOT come close to his performance of 2018 in 2019 , then so be it. He can be part of a package deal to address other areas of need.
Might I suggest “. . . Gold Glove caliber”? He has yet to win one.
It now starts,no predictions,let’s see what happens or most likely doesn’t happen.