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Josh Byrnes: Los Angeles Dodgers’ next GM?

By Jennifer Rainwater

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On Friday CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reported that former general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks and most recently the San Diego Padres, Josh Byrnes, may be the front runner for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ open GM position under the new president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.

Friedman, former general manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, was hired by the Dodgers October 14 to be the first president of baseball operations for the team. He has already been changing things up a bit and asserting his new authority.

The team’s previous general manager Ned Colletti was removed from his position and shifted to the role of senior advisor to the team president Stan Kasten. Friedman also made it clear that Don Mattingly would remain as the manager of the team in 2015.

The Dodgers have also been rumored to have been considering former Washington Nationals executive Bryan Minniti, New York Yankees’ assistant GM Billy Eppler, as well as Red Sox assistant GM Mike Hazen. Yet none of the aforementioned men seem to have the attention of the Dodgers the way that Byrnes does.

Byrnes experience is a big draw for the Dodgers who are looking for someone who can run a popular, big market team that under goes heavy media scrutiny. It also seems that Byrnes and Friedman have a close but private friendship and similar baseball philosphy, according to Heyman.

Later Friday afternoon, it was confirmed by ESPN Los Angeles’ Mark Saxon that Friedman has spoken with Byrnes about joining his staff with the Dodgers but was mum on any details.

Also, according to Saxon, Friedman did say there will be a new general manager of the Dodgers in the near future. In his short elaboration on the subject Friedman simply said that the team will be,

"“going to embrace the dynamic people that are already in place and bring people in from the outside and we’re going to work together.”"

Whether or not that means Josh Byrnes has secretly accepted the position or denied it, or has infact even been offered it, remains to be seen.

The only thing that is known at this time is that Byrnes and Friedman have a positive relationship, share a similar philosophy and have spoken about working together.

That doesn’t seem like a bad recipe for putting together a winning team, meaning Byrnes might just be the right choice for the Dodgers. Still no official announcements have been made by the team, so for now everyone will just have to wait and see.

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