Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman didn’t think that his team had a shot at signing both Edwin Diaz and Kyle Tucker.
In a recent interview with the California Post, Friedman revealed he didn’t think they’d end up with one of them, let alone both.
“That’s the trickiest part of every offseason,” Friedman said. “If you have a Plan A, but Plan B or C is coming off the board at a reasonable price point, how do you weigh that? That’s the art of navigating an offseason.”
“We feel fortunate that we were able to wind up with both,” Friedman said, before stating his start-of-the-winter prediction: “I would have thought that the odds of us getting both were sub-5%, for sure.”
Can Anyone Stop the Dodgers After This Free Agency Haul?
Lo and behold, the Dodgers pulled off the impossible, something we have seen them do for the past three offseasons.
The Dodgers are once again winners of the offseason with the signings of Diaz and Tucker. L.A. signed Diaz to a three-year, $69 million deal in December. Tucker signed a four-year, $240 million deal in January.
Los Angeles added arguably the two best players in free agency and head into the 2026 season as the overwhelming favorite to hoist the Commissioner’s trophy. Jack Harris of the California Post also mentioned that the Dodgers were looking at other closer options like Raisel Iglesias and Robert Suarez and were even in on bidding for Devin Williams.
Instead, they struck gold by adding the best closer in the game. After signing Diaz, Friedman said there weren’t a ton of scenarios he foresaw in which they end up with the three-time All-Star.
“There were a lot of scenarios (that could have played out) where we didn’t necessarily end up with a top-end reliever,” Friedman said after Díaz’s signing. “But we just kind of prepared on a bunch of different fronts. And being aggressive, if something lined up, we’ve known all along (is something we would do).”
The goal for this season is to complete the three-peat, and nobody knows that better than Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts. In an interview at Fan Fest, Roberts said that while the three-peat talk is fun, the journey ahead will be tough.
“I don’t mind the three (titles in a row being) in the air as a carrot, and kind of a north star of focus,” Roberts said. “But I do think that we’re very mindful that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to get to that point.”
The addition of Tucker and Diaz certainly puts them in the drivers seat for another title.
