Los Angeles Dodgers: Three absurd takes to avoid from postseason loss
By Jason Reed
2. Andrew Friedman’s front office is terrible
There is no going around the fact that Andrew Friedman’s offseason acquisitions played terrible in the NLDS. A.J. Pollock went a record-setting 0-13 with 11 strikeouts, Joe Kelly allowed the final grand slam and was poor in Game 3.
The team’s midseason pickups were unimpactful as well. Jedd Gyroko did not make the playoff roster and Adam Kolarek was very sparsely used as a left-handed specialist, which he did do great in.
If anything, I should be glad that Pollock did poor as I was very against the signing back in the offseason. Instead, I find myself on the other side of the fence, defending Friedman once again.
Everyone loved the Pollock signing and loved it up until the postseason. Pollock provided quality at-bats and big moments for the Dodgers this season and if you polled the fanbase two weeks ago then Pollock would be viewed very favorably. Five bad games and that suddenly flips.
Joe Kelly was also viewed as an excellent signing at the time and after his slow start, he really started to gain a lot of support from Dodger fans. He was not good in Game 3 but the Game 5 grand slam wasn’t really his fault as he should have been pulled.
And then you have the argument that the Dodgers should have made a big move at the deadline. Those are the same people that also love Dustin May, Tony Gonsonlin, Will Smith and Gavin Lux: all of the same players that people were campaigning to trade six months ago.
No GM is going to be perfect and Friedman has made a lot of great sneaky moves. Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez, Max Muncy and Rich Hill have all been brought in during Friedman’s tenure.
The team has drafted extremely well as well, drafting Walker Buehler, Gavin Lux, Will Smith, and Dustin May — all of which were on the postseason roster.