Grading Friedman, Gomes and the Los Angeles Dodgers front office at the season’s midway point

Overall

Here’s the first half report card on the Dodgers front office. Note that grades for players departing the organization are based on the reverse of those players’ WAAs with their new teams.

Mode                    WAA               Grade

Acquired                 0.0                    C

Traded                  -1.0                     B

Signed                  -0.6                     C

FA Lost                 +1.2                    D

Rookies                -3.9                     F

Overall                  -4.7                    F

The striking thing here isn’t that Friedman and Gomes have accumulated a failing mid-term report card, although that’s pretty striking in itself. The really striking thing is that there is only one area of performance it’s possible to cite as a positive … and that involves trading people away.

It’s also a sharp performance turnaround from their first season working together in 2022. By the end of last year, Friedman and Gomes had infused 11.7 games worth of new talent into the Dodger system, largely explaining their climb back to the division championship.

That creates more than a 16-game difference between last season and this one to date.

Friedman and Gomes have made 39 personnel moves involving major league talent since the end of the 2022 season, of which only 15 have worked out to L.A.’s advantage. A striking 22 have hurt the Dodgers, while two were neutral.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are able to remain in contention despite this negative front office performance because they have a solid base of talent. That base begins with Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin and Will Smith. A team that can bring back that core is never going to be far from contention.