LOS ANGELES -- Two months after Andrew Friedman took over the Dodgers as their president of baseball operations, he took over the Winter Meetings.
Hired on Oct. 14, 2014, by Guggenheim Baseball Management to get the Dodgers to the next level, and called by CEO Stan Kasten "one of the youngest and brightest minds in the game today," Friedman inherited a back-to-back division champion from Ned Colletti.
Before the Winter Meetings opened in San Diego, Friedman had been joined by Farhan Zaidi, Josh Byrnes and an analytical front office reared in small-market economics. The overriding mission was to reset player development, reducing dependence on costly free agents and trades for veterans.