The Dodgers are rich, smart and pretty lucky
LOS ANGELES — If money alone propelled teams to the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers would have been here a lot more often. They have spent billions on salaries since their last pennant, in 1988, and topped Major League Baseball in payroll for each of the past four seasons.
Yet most winning teams need more than highly paid stars; they also need luck. Some World Series standouts of this decade, such as Chris Carpenter, David Ortiz and Jake Arrieta, were rejected by their prior teams for little or nothing in return. In Game 1 on Tuesday, the Dodgers’ lucky breaks powered their 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium.
When the Dodgers traded for Chris Taylor in June 2016, they did not expect him to homer on the very first pitch in the bottom of the first inning on the night they returned to the World Series. Likewise, when they signed Justin Turner to a minor-league contract in February 2014, they never knew he would conjure Kirk Gibson and Ron Cey in a future October.
Now the Dodgers look like the rich guys who also won the lottery. But it was also a Dodgers executive, Hall of Famer Branch Rickey, who said luck was the residue of design.
“In some sense, having financial flexibility opens more avenues,” general manager
Farhan Zaidi said in the clubhouse Tuesday night.
“But you want to win and compete in every player market — not just the high-end market, but the market for players who may have been passed over in other organizations, the market for minor-league free agents who have a chance to impact you at the major-league level,” Zaidi said.
“I don’t think we want to concede any of those markets to other teams.”
The Dodgers want it all. That was the point of hiring Andrew Friedman to run their baseball operations three years ago, with Zaidi as his top lieutenant and a deep stable of analysts and former general managers behind them.
Friedman had turned around the thrifty Tampa Bay Rays, and Zaidi had helped oversee winning teams on a tight budget in Oakland. They have continued to seek undervalued talent while also maintaining a payroll that topped $240 million on opening day.
That creates a vast inventory of options for manager Dave Roberts, with players regularly shuttling to and from the minors and onto and off the disabled list.
Taylor started the season in Class AAA, as did veteran reliever Brandon Morrow, who is now the top setup man for closer Kenley Jansen.
Morrow fired a 1-2-3 eighth inning on Tuesday and has a 0.96 ERA in the post-season. Taylor and Turner shared the Most Valuable Player Award in the National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs and have a combined post-season average of .329, with seven homers.
Clayton Kershaw, who overpowered the Astros for seven innings in Game 1, said he knew Turner could hit since they faced each other a decade ago in Class A. Turner revamped his swing at the end of his New York Mets tenure, in 2013, but Kershaw said there was more to his revival.
“You can’t teach what he’s doing,” Kershaw said. “No mechanics or anything can teach the mindset and the competitiveness, the clutchness, whatever that is.”
Turner’s original organization, the Cincinnati Reds, dumped him in a minor trade before he had reached Class AAA, and the Baltimore Orioles waived him after 17 games in the majors. The Mets let him go after a little more than three seasons.
With help from a Mets teammate, Marlon Byrd, and a hitting instructor named Doug Latta, Turner learned to hit more fly balls, helping start a trend around the game that Taylor also capitalized on last off-season.
When the Dodgers got Taylor — from Seattle in a deal for minorleague pitcher Zach Lee — they liked his versatility, athleticism and plate discipline. But mainly he was just another version of Turner with the Mets.
“Everybody knew he was a great utility player; he was going to help us out in that role,” Kershaw said of Taylor. “But as far as being an everyday whatever-youwant-to-put-him-at — shortstop, centre fielder, leadoff hitter — with that type of pop, that type of at-bat quality, I would never have guessed it until he started doing it. He’s one of the elite players in the game.”
Taylor hit .288 with 21 homers, 17 steals and an .850 on-base plus slugging percentage this season, while making close to the minimum salary.
Turner is no longer a bargain like Taylor. After making $8.6 million across his first three years with the Dodgers, he signed a four-year, $64-million contract in free agency last winter. Turner responded with his best season, hitting .322 with 21 homers and a .945 OPS, and the other two free agents the Dodgers retained — Jansen and Game 2 starter Rich Hill — also lived up to their new deals. Jansen got five years and $80 million, Hill three years and $48 million.
“We brought back the core of our team from last year that got to the NLCS, and we felt really good about that team,” Zaidi said.
“But having Chris Taylor take his game to the next level, having Brandon Morrow come in and what he’s done in the bullpen — when you get those unexpected contributions from guys, it can really take your team even beyond your expectations.”