As the World Series against the Houston Astros raged in October, the Dodgers lost a high-ranking member of their baseball operations department when director of player development Gabe Kapler departed to become manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.
It took the Dodgers more than a month to announce his replacement: Brandon Gomes, who pitched several seasons for the Tampa Bay Rays when Andrew Friedman was the general manager. Friedman hired Gomes as a pitching coordinator for the Dodgers in the fall of 2016. The organization opted to promote an internal candidate to replace Kapler.
"He's a natural leader," Friedman said Wednesday morning as pitchers and catchers took part in their first workout of the spring.