At last December’s annual winter meetings in Nashville, Andrew Friedman emerged from a crowded hotel conference room, caught the gaze of an approaching reporter, then pointed to his top lieutenant walking ahead of him.
“You’ve got him today,” Friedman said.
“Him” was Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes.
And on this day he’d be the voice of the organization.
This was on Dec. 5, after Dodgers manager Dave Roberts revealed to reporters that the team met with then-free agent Shohei Ohtani.
The disclosure surprised the front office — including Friedman, now in his 10th year as president of baseball operations. Given the cloak of secrecy surrounding Ohtani’s free-agent process, team officials were unsure whether it would dent their chances of signing the two-way star.
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In the eye of that storm, Friedman declined the opportunity to calm the waters himself, or quell rampant speculation.
Instead, it was Gomes, the third-year general manager and homegrown executive, who was at the reins of the organization’s public response.
Make no mistake, the Dodgers’ front office is still very much Friedman’s domain. He has the final say on all key decisions. He’s the one who, when Ohtani finally did sign with the Dodgers a week after the winter meetings, had his name included in the contract’s “key-man” clause.
However, Gomes’ rise in recent years has marked a notable shift in front-office operations, putting the 40-year-old GM in a leading role for contract and trade negotiations, daily communication with the major-league coaching staff and roster, and even most of the front office’s media obligations.
In the past, such responsibilities were largely in Friedman’s purview, both in his early years of reshaping the Dodgers’ front office in his image, and after other teams repeatedly raided his most trusted confidants.
Between 2017 and 2018, Friedman lost his first farm director, Gabe Kapler, his vice president of baseball operations, Alex Anthopoulous, and his first general manager, Farhan Zaidi, to promotions at rival clubs.
Following Zaidi’s exodus, the Dodgers’ GM post remained vacant through 2021.
