During one of the busiest MLB Winter Meetings in years, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ new front office group; President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and General Manager Farhan Zaidi, hit the ground running and left the meetings smiling after an extreme makeover of the roster.
Friedman used a lot of creativity to land the guys he wanted; trading outfielder Matt Kemp and catcher Tim Federowicz to the rival San Diego Padres (as well as $32 million to cover part of Kemp’s $107 million contract) for catcher Yasmani Grandal, pitcher Joe Wieland and a prospect right-hand pitcher, Zack Elfin.
The Dodgers sent second baseman Dee Gordon, pitcher Dan Haren and Miguel Rojas to the Miami Marlins in exchange for left-hander Andrew Heaney, infielder Enrique Hernandez, reliever Chris Hatcher and minor-leaguer Austin Barnes. The team then flipped Heaney to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for All-Star second baseman Howie Kendrick.
Seeking a veteran shortstop to replace Hanley Ramirez, L.A. acquired Jimmy Rollins from the Philadelphia Phillies in a trade.
Rollins will make $11 million in 2015, the final year of his contract. He batted .243 with 17 home runs, 55 RBIs and 28 stolen bases last season. The former Philly is the perfect veteran to bridge the gap until top position player Corey Seager is ready to handle the position. In another move, the Dodgers agreed to a four-year, $48 million deal to land free-agent pitcher Brandon McCarthy.
McCarthy was a steal as a back-of-the-rotation starter for under $50 million. Several Dodger fans are upset about the loss of Kemp, a popular outfielder, and the move has also been labeled a salary dump. It begs a few questions: Did Matt Kemp wear out his welcome? Did he not meet expectations? Will trading a much needed bat to a division rival come back to bite the ball club?
The Dodgers have weakened the power aspect of the lineup with Kemp, Ramirez and Gordon — a speedster — gone. They got a 26-year-old catcher who hit 15 home runs last season and is one of the best at framing his pitches. There is a strong possibility that a trade that was engineered months ago helped push this deal over the top. The speculation is that it involved fired Padres General Manager Josh Byrnes, now Friedman’s right hand man in Los Angeles and Logan White, the former Dodgers director of scouting and now holding the same position with the Padres.
Byrnes knows and likes Grandal. White knows and drafted Kemp. It’s impossible to discount the work these two executives, with new mailing addresses, put in to get this deal done. The Blue Crew is basically renting Jimmy Rollins and Howie Kendrick.
The fact of the matter is that the Dodgers made five deals and changed the chemistry in the clubhouse. They bypassed the Rule 5 Draft but did select four players in the AAA Draft for the farm system which makes them younger a year from now. The moves opened up some significant contract space for more free agent signings without moving blue-chip minor league players Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Julio Urias.
According to Advanced WAR numbers (Wins above Replacement: an attempt by the saber metric baseball community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic), the moves make sense and are aligned with Friedman’s statement: “We made ourselves a better team.”
Several have asked a very simple question: “WAR. What is it good for?”
According to The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR: dealing in advanced metrics everything), the concept of WAR is all-inclusive.
The thinking is that no other one stat is able to give such a complete look at a player. WAR looks at base running, fielding, playing time and the players’ total value. In saber metric circles WAR is the difference between evaluating players in black-and-white analog and vivid, colorful HD.