Los Angeles Dodgers: Why you should probably trust the front office

Fan-favorite Hyun-Jin Ryu signed a four-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays and now fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers are questioning the front office.

This offseason has been frustrating for a specific portion of the Los Angeles Dodgers fan base that was expecting some kind of big move to “put the team over the top”. While there is still an opportunity to make a big move, another big name escaped the Dodgers’ grasp, upsetting those same select fans.

It was reported on Sunday night that Hyun-Jin Ryu and the Toronto Blue Jays agreed to a four-year, $80 million deal. Ryu was the biggest name left on the market and Dodger fans were hoping he would return to LA after the Dodgers missed out on the elite free agents.

He didn’t, as $20 million per season for four seasons was too much for the Dodgers, which has prompted a “cheapskates” narrative, even though the team is still fifth in total payroll.

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While personally, it would have been nice to see Ryu return just because I am a fan of his, it is probably for the best that he didn’t. While he was great last season, this is a guy that is turning 34 before the season who has not started 30 games in a season since his rookie year.

Those are extremely troubling signs and there is a decent chance that Ryu is not worth close to $80 million. In fact, based on how this front office operates, we should probably expect Ryu to regress, as this front office has made very few mistakes in evaluating players.

You should trust Andrew Friedman and company, their track record speaks for itself. Don’t believe me? Just go back and look at trade rumors that were not completed and trades that were completed in recent years and see the fallout.

J.T. Realmuto. He was fantastic last season but the Dodgers had a great rookie catcher in Will Smith. Now, Realmuto is in the last year of his contract and the Phillies are either going to have to pay him a lot of letting him go.

Not only would Smith not have gotten the chance, but the team would also have likely had to trade Keibert Ruiz and various other prospects. Realmuto is a fine player, but it is apparent that the Dodgers did not need him as much as the fans thought they needed him.

What about Manny Machado? The Dodgers traded a prospect package that was headlined by Yusniel Diaz after refusing to offer both Dustin May and Gavin Lux. May and Lux both made the big league team in 2019, Lux won minor league player of the year and Diaz regressed.

Diaz, who was a top-100 prospect at the time on MLB Pipeline, is no longer in the top-100 and hit just .265 in the minor leagues while battling injury.

What about Yu Darvish? Sure, his World Series starts were bad but Darvish was exceptional in the first two rounds of the playoffs (revisionist history ignores that) and the prospect the team traded, Willie Calhoun, has played in a combined 131 big league games and has hit .258.

Speaking of Darvish, the Dodgers did not re-sign him when many thought they would and he then missed most of 2018 with injury, was mediocre in 2019 and is now one of the several terrible contracts that is forcing the Chicago Cubs to shop Kris Bryant.

Remember when everyone thought the Dodgers would trade for Giancarlo Stanton? The Yankees did not send that big of a prospect haul because they took on his contract but if the Dodgers were to trade for Stanton it would have had to be headlined by a now-familiar face, Alex Verdugo.

Is Stanton still the better outfielder right now than Verdugo? Probably, but Stanton missed almost all of 2019, hit 21 fewer home runs in 2018 than he did in 2017, and is now an eyesore on the payroll for a team with seemingly unlimited funds.

And just think, if the Dodgers traded for Stanton then they wouldn’t even have the opportunity to make any big moves this offseason with how the payroll is structured.

Other prospects that have been traded away, such as Jose De Leon, Zach Lee and Hector Olivera have not turned out promising for the teams that traded for them. The only counterpoint is Yordan Alvarez, who was not even a highly touted prospect and most Dodger fans didn’t even know his name until 2019.

And for the one Yordan Alvarez, the front office has a Max Muncy (who leads second basemen in fWAR over the last two seasons, by the way) and Chris Taylor.

The bottom line is that this front office has known when to sign people, when not to sign people, when to trade for people and who should be traded.

Next. 2019 grades for every Dodger. dark

The most a front office can do is build a team that is good enough to win a World Series. It also takes some luck and getting hot at the right time to win it all. The Los Angeles Dodgers front office has done an excellent job in extending that contending window and doesn’t deserve to be second-guessed so frequently.

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