Zack Greinke pitches for the Dodgers last season. Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The more things change, the more the expectations stay the same.
The Los Angeles Dodgers assembled in Arizona for spring training after an unprecedented winter makeover for a team that won 94 games last season and its second consecutive National League West title.
Despite that success, the front-office reins were handed over to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman (hired away from the Tampa Bay Rays), and general manager Ned Colletti was pushed aside. Josh Byrnes (vice president for baseball operations) and Farhan Zaidi (the new general manager) joined Friedman in a front-office makeover that only started the winter of change.
That group hit the ground running, turning over half of the roster that ruled the NL West the past two years. Gone are outfielder Matt Kemp, shortstop Hanley Ramirez, second baseman Dee Gordon and a host of others, replaced by new faces such as shortstop Jimmy Rollins, second baseman Howie Kendrick and catcher Yasmani Grandal.
The question that will follow the Dodgers into the season is a simple one: Are they better for all the changes?
“Going into the playoffs last year, I had a strong feeling that we were the best team in baseball,” Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke said. “Obviously, we didn’t prove it (in the postseason). But I thought we were the best team in baseball.
“So to say we’re better than that — I don’t know if you could say that.”
Friedman does. The changes should no doubt result in much better defense to support an outstanding pitching staff. The lineup will have to be deeper to offset the loss of Kemp and Ramirez.
Most of all, this is a more “functional” team as opposed to “a collection of talent,” Friedman asserts, with better depth, a more flexible roster and fewer of the clashing agendas and egos that dominated last year’s clubhouse.
“Our overarching goal coming onto the offseason was to take a very strong collection of players and do our best to mold it into a highly functioning baseball team,” he said. “We feel like these moves speak to that, and we’re excited about the way our position-player group fits together, how they complement one another. And we feel like we have great length to our lineup with great balance as well.”
