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What is Farhan Zaidi and the Dodgers up to?

(Photo via Twitter User @TheBeast980)

The Dodgers have been busy this month, first there was this:

And I said “Oh, okay, the Dodgers got themselves a lefty reliever, he looks pretty nice, doesn’t give up a lot of home-runs, I like”

Then two days later:

So, I looked the guy up, “Kind of makes sense, younger, former top 5 pitcher in the Red’s system.” Then later I found out that the guy isn’t starter material anymore but is being converted into a reliever, so that follows in line with the first transaction, more (cheap) relief depth.

Then today, two more transactions:

I got really curious and had to dig:

So the Dodgers designated Huff, who they got in the off-season, to pick up Dennick off waivers, to pick up Daniel Corcino off waivers, and then designate Corcino to get Cedeno from the Nationals, who they picked up for cash.

That doesn’t even include the Webb trade, who was a relief pitcher with actual major league success, just to get the competitive balance pick.

So today I had to ask “What the heck are the Dodgers up to?” and it’s very simple when you look at it.

Depth.

They are doing the opposite of what Ned did all these years, where he acquired and signed veteran players, then stuck them on the AAA team, or paid millions to stick in the bullpen, and sometimes not do well, what Zaidi and the rest of the front office, (I think people tend to forget Zaidi is the General Manager and Friedman is the President of Baseball Ops so everything gets attributed to Friedman, bigger name and all) are doing is creating relief depth, not on the Dodgers team, but in their minor league system.

Ok, so it seems complicated but it’s really simple and I’ll explain it like this.

When a player is waived, he is being waived from another team’s active 40 man roster, so when the Dodgers claim a player, they are added to the Dodgers 40 man and the Dodgers have to have an opening to claim someone, or move someone onto the 40 man roster from the minors.

The Dodgers are building a stable of young arms to use not only in the minors but possibly in the majors so in case of ineffectiveness, injury or trade, their well will never run dry.

With the Dodgers being on the back end of the waiver wire, the thinking is, they can claim anyone they want off the wire, put him on the 40 man and then waive that player again knowing he will more than likely make it through the waiver wire again and be able to be taken off the 40 man and if a team does claim that player, they lost a player they never really had in the first place.

All in all, the Dodgers are using their waiver wire position and money to build relief depth in the minors, something we never really had under Colletti. This is genius and it’s something I’ve never seen done and is highly creative and really makes for something new happening seemingly all the time.

Boy I love this front office, and I can’t wait to see what other creative things they do.

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