The Los Angeles Dodgers have garnered much attention because of their roster building and use of deferrals this winter. While many have openly criticized the Dodgers for their success this offseason, former MVP Christian Yelich heaped high praise for the defending champions.
Yelich missed out on the postseason due to a season-ending surgery. The Milwaukee Brewers won the NL Central, but lost in the Wild Card finale to the New York Mets. The small-market team put up a good fight, but ultimately fell short.
Then, in the offseason the Brewers lost two of their stars in shortstop Willy Adames and changeup specialist Devin Williams.
It's certainly hard for other players from small-market teams to watch the Dodgers ride the wave of success, but Yelich handed the team a huge compliment on the Flippin' Bats Podcast.
Christian Yelich speaks on what the Dodgers are doing with all the deferred money:
"They won the World Series last year, they're going for it again," Yelich said. "They got better it looks like from last year. If you're a fan of the team or you're on the team, you're obviously super excited about it.
“It’s cool that their front office and ownership supports their team and wants to be the best version throughout the year. You don't know what's going to happen during the baseball season, you still gotta play the games, you still gotta win the games."
Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes recently said the organization isn't concerned with all the critics or naysayers.
“We are focused on and tasked with making sure our team is as good as possible,” Gomes said. “If that is creating ire elsewhere, that’s fine, because I think that means our fans are very happy, which is what the goal is. I think the nature of our sport, the nature of the playoff format, you can be technically the best team and it doesn’t guarantee you anything.
“All we’re doing is making sure that we have as talented a team as possible.”
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman says he'd rather look at it from the perspective of Dodgers fans, who are elated at what the Dodgers have done this offseason.
“I think I look at it from the other side,” Friedman said. “The inverse of that hopefully means that our fans are really happy.
“From our standpoint, that’s our only mission: to do everything we can to be great stewards of this organization and to reward our incredibly passionate fans.”
Regardless, Yelich is right. The Dodgers still have to win throughout the season, but the organization has never been in better position to do so.
