The past three years have marked a major shift in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ team-building philosophy.
With all of the money the Dodgers have spent on Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Blake Snell and many others, it’s easy to forget that isn’t how it’s always been under the current regime, led by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.
Clayton Kershaw’s seven-year, $215 million contract extension with the Dodgers in 2014 was the largest in franchise history at the time. It was agreed to months before Friedman eventually joined the organization in October of 2014.
The amount of money the Dodgers spent on players’ salaries remained among the highest in the league under Friedman, but that was largely due to salary absorbed in the 2012 blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox before he was hired.