If Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman were a poker player, chances are he wouldn’t be very good at it. This isn’t a knock on the 42-year-old Dodgers executive, it’s just that he lacks the proverbial ‘poker face.’ In other words, when asked a question, his answers are often predictable and usually along so-called company lines.

Late Monday morning at a still seemingly somber Dodger Stadium and in front of an impressive gathering of reporters and cameras, Friedman held his annual end-of-season press conference in the very same interview room that was the center of activity during last week’s 2019 National League Division Series.

With his five-year / $35 million contract having expired with the final out of Game-5 of the 2019 National League Division Series last Wednesday that brought an abrupt end to a franchise record-setting season, the obvious first question was whether or not the Dodger executive would be returning to the team amidst rumors (and the hue and cry of angry Dodger fans) that he would not.

There will be no burning-at-the-stake of Friedman, or of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts (who signed a four-year contract extension back on December 3, 2018), as both will be returning – at least for next season – although the details of Friedman’s new contract have yet to be worked out. Interestingly, Friedman expressed surprise – even shock – that there was even a question about Roberts’ return.

“When the season ends as abruptly as it did, and it’s one of the more painful losses that I can remember, the whole thing is focusing on how we get to winning those 11 games in October,” Friedman said. “In our mind, Dave is absolutely a part of that.”

The only real surprising news, although not entirely unexpected, was when Friedman was asked if the rest of his staff would also be returning next season with them. Friedman said that they would, with one significant exception.

“Rick Honeycutt is going to transition into a special assistant role,” Friedman answered. “Obviously, he’s meant a lot to this organization for a long time and he still will going forward. It’ll just be in a slightly different role that we’re still kind of working out the details on.

“Fortunately, we’ve been able to have [current bullpen coach] Mark Prior around and have him build up relationships, so my assumption is he will slide into that. Those specific things haven’t been worked out yet,” he added.

And then came the heavy stuff – questions about 31-year-old left-hander Clayton Kershaw being used out of the Dodgers bullpen in Game-5 of the Division Series and 32-year-old right-handed Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen not – at least not when perhaps he should have been used.

“I think Kershaw is not exactly the same pitcher he was three years ago, but I still think he was a really good pitcher this year,” Friedman said. “It was more about the comfort of being able to warm up and come into a game. It’s up to us to evaluate and line up talent, and I can’t remember feeling better about any one player than Kershaw in terms of how much he cares, how much he prepares and how much he pours into it.

“That’s all we can ask for from a player. Then it’s up to us,” he continued. “And I feel like we had a room full of people that put everything they had into winning 11 games in October.”

They won two.

With Kenley, Friedman reiterated what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has said all season long – that Jansen is and will continue to be their closer.

…sort of.

“We’ll see how things play out,” Friedman (sort of) answered. “He feels good and there were decent chunks of time this year when everything synced up and his stuff was objectively better, and other times he struggled more, and I think it’s about his delivery.

“He’s a very large human and things can get out of whack a little bit,” Friedman added. “The focus will be to lock that down and repeat more consistently. I will absolutely bet on him. I’m excited of what he’s capable of next year. His role? I don’t exactly know right now.”

Regardless of ‘his role,’ Jansen, who can now opt-out of his current five-year / $80 million contract that guarantees him $18 million in 2020 and $20 million if 2021, has been rumored to be upset that Roberts hasn’t (or at least didn’t) utilized him as much in the closer role down the stretch and during the just-concluded NLDS. That being said, it is unfathomable to think that the 6’5″ / 265-pound “very large human” would walk away from a guaranteed $38 million over the next two seasons; unless, of course, there is another team out there willing to top that in money and years – unlikely, but you just never know.

When asked if the Dodgers will attempt to re-sign (now) free-agent left-hander and 2019 NL Cy-Young award frontrunner Hyun-Jin Ryu, a Scott Boras client, Friedman said that he hasn’t “unpacked” on re-signing anyone yet. He did, however, say that right-hander Kenta Maeda, who was nothing short of brilliant out of the Dodgers bullpen during the Division Series, will possibly return to the Dodgers starting rotation next season.

“There will definitely be the possibility for Kenta to earn a starting role for longer, and potentially into October,” said Friedman. “I think a lot of that gets to, you know, just commanding the baseball a little bit better against left-handed hitters, just improving a little bit against left-handed hitters.

“And we had that conversation about what that could mean, and continue to have that focus be that we’d love for him to continue to take his game to another level, which we think he’s capable of, and take the ball every fifth day and pitch for us in October.”

How’s that for an answer.

The one obvious question (at least obvious to yours truly, who asked it) is whether or not extremely popular Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren might leave to fill one of the many managerial vacancies that are currently out there.

“I think, at this point, I’m not sure. Bob has been a big part of our successes, as good of a bench coach as I’ve been around.” Friedman answered. “And I think with all the openings out there, I think it’s definitely a possibility. If so, tough loss for the Dodgers, great for him personally. And so we’ll just kind of feel that out and see where that goes.”

The one thing that Friedman was very clear about in his near half-hour long presser is that despite the now-debunked rumors of him leaving, the Dodgers are blessed to have the best fanbase on the planet.

“As we sit here today and as we look forward to the off-season, we have to focus on things that are constructive, things that will help us in our quest to deliver a World Series championship to Los Angeles, and a big part of the reason of what made us as good as we are to do it is because of our great fans,” Friedman said convincingly. “You look at the passion, the energy they bring, look at our home record this year, it’s not an accident that we played as well as we did at home with the passion, the energy and just the volume of people we got in here throughout the year, and that’s part of what makes this so heartbreaking.”

Maybe Andrew Friedman is a better poker player than we thought.

Play Ball!

    *    *    *    *    *