Andrew Friedman Responds To ‘Dodgers Are Bad For Baseball’ Allegations

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2023-2024 offseason by signing Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and trading for and extending Tyler Glasnow. Then they won the trade deadline by acquiring Jack Flaherty. Then they won the World Series in five games over the New York Yankees.

It'd be easy to forgive ownership and the front office then, if they sat back a bit and enjoyed their success. Instead, they signed two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell to a 5-year, $182 million deal. 

Opposing fans immediately cried foul, saying that the Dodgers accumulating talent was "bad for baseball," that a team actively trying to win is ruining the sport. President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman joined Jim Rome and unsurprisingly, disagreed.

"From the moment I got here has been incredibly consistent with the civic responsibility that we have to our fans, and that partnership we have with our fans," Friedman said. "So I got asked the other day after the Blake Snell press conference, ‘hey what do you think about other fans and other teams saying that you guys are ruining baseball.’ And we don't think about that at all, we think about our responsibility we have to our fans. They show up every night, they show up on the road, the passion they have for this team, we feel immense pressure to deliver for them. And thus, the virtuous cycle of the Dodgers and our fans and how intertwined those things are, really are front of mind for our ownership group and it's about continuing to reinvest and continuing to make this, in our minds, what we are shooting for, the golden era of Dodgers baseball…That's what we're shooting for."

LOS ANGELES - Blake Snell reacts during a press conference introducing him as a Los Angeles Dodger at Dodger Stadium on December 3, 2024. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Dodgers Criticism Should Be Directed Elsewhere

Friedman is saying what every fan should want their team decision makers to say. We want to win, we respect the fact that fans care about the team and pay their hard-earned money to buy tickets every night. And we realize that the more we invest in the team, the better our return will be.

Ohtani signed a record-breaking contract, yes, then Dodgers' ownership actually made an estimated $120 million in increased endorsements and marketing.

Instead of following this model; developing talent that can either help the major league roster or be flipped for players other owners are too cheap to sign, supplementing that with targeted free agency signings, and reinvesting profits in the team, most teams try to sell their young stars before they get too expensive.

That's the real issue, that's what's "bad for baseball." 

Friemdan's mindset and response to the criticism is the right one: "we don't think about that at all." Other teams should try that too.