Column: If Dodgers are to survive October, Andrew Friedman have to recognize change is necessary

Andrew Friedman at first sounded as if he was open up to the chance that he was responsible for the Dodgers’ most the latest October nightmare.

“The dilemma is, is it just baseball?” Friedman requested. “Or are there items we can do to enhance upon that? Are there levers we can pull, are there factors to set us in a far better situation there?”

The more Friedman spoke Tuesday at his stop-of-the-period news conference, on the other hand, the additional it turned crystal clear he considered the Dodgers were just unfortunate in their defeat to the San Diego Padres in their National League Division Series.

The president of baseball functions pointed to his team’s normal-period figures with runners in scoring situation.

He recalled the late-period injuries sustained by Gavin Lux and Justin Turner.

He went as far to point out how Dodgers catcher Will Smith’s seventh-inning sacrifice fly in Match 4 was hit right at Jurickson Profar whilst Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim’s grounder in the bottom of the identical inning skipped by Max Muncy for the reason that he was playing in.

Friedman didn’t highlight anything at all the front office could have performed far better. If anything at all, he went out of his way to defend the team.

“I’m biased, but I experience like it’s the greatest in baseball,” Friedman said.

So there you have it: Friedman doesn’t imagine he did anything erroneous, even however he constructed nevertheless yet another Dodgers staff that dominated the common season and flamed out in the playoffs.

Friedman downplayed the necessity for adjust, stating Dave Roberts will “100%” return as manager upcoming season. He stated he also expected the other customers of the coaching staff members to return. He available no indication he would go about making his roster any in a different way than he has about the last eight decades.

If the initially step in correcting the team’s October trouble is admitting there is an Oct difficulty, nicely, then the Dodgers nonetheless have an Oct issue.

Alternatively of expressing contrition beyond evident lip assistance, Friedman was defensive. As an alternative of sounding introspective, he arrived throughout as haughty and condescending.

From the appears of it, he wasn’t intrigued in understanding what went awry both. He explained he didn’t know why a indication failed to attain right-hander Yency Almonte in the seventh inning of Recreation 4. Relatively than throw to initial base to get a lot more time for left-hander Alex Vesia to warm up, Almonte shipped a ball to Jake Cronenworth. Vesia was forced to enter the video game with a 1- count in an at-bat that resulted in a go-ahead, two-run single by Cronenworth.

Asked if he understood why the indication was skipped, Friedman replied, “I really do not. I’m not gonna invest any time [talking about] that possibly.”

To be obvious, Friedman did not claim the Padres did not are worthy of to win the NLDS. He acknowledged the Dodgers were outplayed.

Dodgers players check out from the dugout all through the ninth inning in Video game 4 of the NLDS versus the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Oct. 15 in San Diego.

(Wally Skalij / VFAB)

Apart from this is not boxing, in which fighters have eight-week education camps intended for them to peak on the nights of their fights. This isn’t monitor and industry, in which athletes adjust their exercise sessions top up to significant competitions.

No baseball workforce has figured out how to engage in its very best when the games make any difference most. So, if groups are subject matter to the inexplicable rhythms of a period, how can everyone be held dependable for what comes about in Oct?

That was mainly Friedman’s point.

“If you are inquiring me if I assume the very best staff wins the Environment Series each calendar year, I would say no,” Friedman reported. “I believe the hottest staff wins the Planet Sequence every single 12 months.”

But some groups are greater produced to face up to a 162-activity standard time than to win in October, and vice versa.

“I guess my point is, is I guess partly, how you determine the finest group,” reported Friedman, who introduced into a nonsensical monologue about supporter anticipations and how Roberts does not should have the criticism he is acquiring. If only Almonte realized how to stall like this.

As soon as all over again, Friedman turned to the team’s 111-gain regular season for cover. By no means thoughts that hitting in the frequent year is not just about anything like hitting in the postseason, particularly now with how many groups are tanking.

“It’s all relative,” Friedman explained. “Other great groups also engage in all the other groups. I experience like versus fantastic teams and excellent pitching, we executed close to the leading in basic.”

Despite none of the Dodgers’ starters pitching into the sixth inning in the NLDS, Friedman turned down the notion he really should have obtained an additional pitcher at the trade deadline.

“I really don't regret not undertaking a terrible deal for us,” Friedman stated. “I never feel like it was our beginning pitching or our pitching in standard that is the motive we are sitting right here right now.”

His pride would not let him to admit he produced any errors, which created him an unsympathetic determine Tuesday but not automatically irredeemable. Extra essential is whether or not he’s admitted to himself that anything has to improve, that he is not just getting unlucky each and every October, that there is a cause the only championship he’s won came in a pandemic-shortened year in which the playoffs were most like the common period.