With the highest payroll in Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers should probably not have to defend being frugal. But the team has not been able to rid themselves of the injury bug that bit last season and now has to wonder if one or two high-priced free agents would have made a difference.
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations, is operating with a massive budget thanks to the Guggenheim group. Whether Friedman was able to add payroll or not, he made it clear that he thinks the team can win from within, and he does not regret not spending.
"The worst thing we could do is make an emotional decision in the moment,'' he said, "and do something that's not in our best interest. As we looked at this 2016 season, we felt that, when the season was over and we looked back at it, that depth would be the hallmark of this team.
"We're going to show it off a littler earlier than ideally we would have liked.''
Catcher Yasmani Grandal, second baseman Howie Kendrick and outfielder Alex Guerrero are still rehabbing minor injuries. Starting pitchers Brett Anderson and Brandon McCarthy will be on the disabled list for a few more months and may return before the All Star break. Meanwhile, Hyun-Jin Ryu will be out for at least the month of April and early May.
The Dodgers are also going to be without outfielder Andre Etheir until June or July due to a leg fracture. The team even suffered a scare when Yasiel Puig sat out a game due to a tight hamstring, a nagging injury that shortened his season last year. The Dodgers still have the look of a playoff team, but that is due to their wealth of young talent. For that, Friedman deserves credit.
Even with shortstop Corey Seager's knee and outfielder Joc Pederson's dismal second half, the Dodgers are not panicking and trading their biggest assets. Part of the reason their payroll is so high is the blockbuster trade that brought in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, who will make about $42 million this year combined.
For their decimated rotation, they invested with low-risk-high-reward contracts like Kenta Maeda, Joe Blanton and Scott Kazmir. Even though they will pay Kazmir $12 million, they passed on David Price and let Zack Greinke walk. The Dodgers do have clean bills of health for the biggest arms, as Clayton Kershaw, Kazmir and closer Kenley Jansen are ready to go.
"It's one of those freak things,'' Kendrick said, "that everything is happening at once. Better it happen here than later, and then hopefully we get on with our season.''
