“Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball,” he said before popping open a bottle of champagne and kicking off the clubhouse celebration.
The Dodgers should be praised, not criticized, for pursuing excellence and raising the ceiling of their sport.
Friedman said the Dodgers owe it to their fans to put the best team they can on the field.
“Our job is to pour ourselves back into it and try to give them a team that can compete for championships, and that they can be proud of,” he said on Friday before Game 1 of the World Series against the Blue Jays.
“For us, that’s our focus. Everything for us is about pouring back into our fans and that partnership that we have with them.”
It felt like a stock answer, but there was truth behind Friedman’s words. The median ticket price for a Dodgers game this season was $177, $44 more than the second-place Astros and $45 more than the Red Sox.
Charge that much and you should put a good product on the field. The Dodgers know they would insult their fans by asking them to patient and wait for a window to open when they can compete for a championship.
Their sledgehammer misses sometimes — lefthanded reliever Tanner Scott hasn’t been on any of their playoff rosters this season after being signed to a four-year, $72 million deal — but the Dodgers keep swinging.
The Mets have operated the same way under Steve Cohen, getting to the NLCS last season before losing to the Dodgers. That led to the signing of Juan Soto and a payroll that ballooned to $341.8 million.
It also led to an 83-79 season and missing the postseason by losing a tiebreaker with the low-budget Reds.
Payroll is one factor, not a determining one. Friedman said the Dodgers invest heavily in player development staffing and technology because it helps them land free agents.
“When we’re meeting with players in the off-season, they want to know that you can help maximize their ability, and that you’re getting the most out of their teammates,” he said. “Because when you can do that and do it well, you tend to win more games.”
The Dodgers also have improved their clubhouse and other facilities and made sure the players’ family members are looked after.
“Probably our largest kind of focal point and biggest goal was to try to create a destination spot where our own players didn’t want to leave and where players from other teams wanted to come,” Friedman said.
Baseball does not have a parity problem. The Dodgers are the first champion to return to the World Series the following year since the 2009 Phillies.
They’re favored to become the first repeat champion since the Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000. That didn’t ruin baseball as six different teams won over the next six seasons.
That 24-year streak is the longest in baseball history and longer than any streak in the NBA, NFL, or NHL.
It is an issue that only two teams outside of the top 10 markets have won a World Series in the last 20 years. The Cardinals did it twice (2006 and 2011) and the Royals once (2015).
But the solution to that problem shouldn’t be to erect barriers to stop ambitious teams from doing everything they can to win.
Friedman built the 2008 Rays, a low-budget team that won the American League pennant before losing to the Phillies in the World Series.
He took his secret sauce to the Dodgers in 2015. It’s taken 11 years to get in position to win two in a row.
The money helps, no doubt about that. But a World Series can’t be bought.
Friedman isn’t even convinced he has job security.
“One of our overarching goals is — whenever the time comes, and we get fired — is that people look back on this period as the golden age of Dodger baseball, which is a high bar,” he said.
“What exactly it means, how it slots, life’s too busy. That will be more when we’re done. But that’s our goal.”
For a fan, that should be what you expect.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.
