Speaker 1: Andrew Freeman, a big day, a big smile. I know
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of sleepless nights for you. Can
Speaker 1: you exhale now?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean there were definitely a lot of knights up
Speaker 3: pulling our hair out and worried about, you know, what
Speaker 3: kind of decision he was going to make. And we
Speaker 3: felt like we put our best foot forward. It was
Speaker 3: so many different departments and people contributing to ensure that.
Speaker 3: But obviously there are a lot of great teams out there.
Speaker 3: And until I actually got the text from Show Hey
Speaker 3: that said we got him who beat the agent to
Speaker 3: the punch? But until that moment, we weren't sure.
Speaker 1: When you got that text, did you believe it? Was
Speaker 1: it similar to the feeling you had last year when
Speaker 1: you got the news that Otani had chosen the Dodgers
Speaker 1: as well?
Speaker 3: Well, I knew show he wouldn't mess with me, just
Speaker 3: not his personality. I had to like clear my eyes
Speaker 3: and read it again because I didn't expect it to
Speaker 3: come from Show Hey. But when I saw it, did
Speaker 3: a double take and then realized what he was saying,
Speaker 3: and just pure excitement. We had a bunch of guys
Speaker 3: around the office and everyone was just fired up.
Speaker 1: We've heard so much about the courting process, about having
Speaker 1: the dinners, about Otani and Yamamoto having a dinner with him.
Speaker 1: How much do you believe that comfort led to him
Speaker 1: choosing the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think you know.
Speaker 3: Obviously his prior relationship with Shohei and Yoshinobu definitely helps.
Speaker 3: They were able to talk to him through this and
Speaker 3: not in a salesman type way, just be honest with
Speaker 3: their experiences and how they think it would help Roki,
Speaker 3: which I think was incredibly valuable.
Speaker 2: And then even beyond that, just the.
Speaker 3: Number of guys we had either in person or send
Speaker 3: in a video, and the video was guys saying how
Speaker 3: well we take care of players, take care of players families,
Speaker 3: and help make guys better. And it was almost to
Speaker 3: a man. We didn't script it with anyone, and almost
Speaker 3: to a man, that's how all the videos came back.
Speaker 3: So the reason we wanted to do that was for
Speaker 3: Rokie as he's making this decision and he's thinking, Okay,
Speaker 3: I like the Dodgers, I like what they're about, I
Speaker 3: think they can help make me better. But I wonder
Speaker 3: how it would be received in the clubhouse. I just
Speaker 3: don't know that we had the vast majority of our roster,
Speaker 3: either in person or on video, tell him how much
Speaker 3: they want him to be their teammate.
Speaker 1: What's this about the homework assignment? How accurate is that
Speaker 1: that he was asking the Dodgers and other teams how
Speaker 1: he can get better, how he could get his fastball better?
Speaker 1: And how comfortable were you sharing what your thoughts would be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a couple of things in that one. When
Speaker 3: we got the question from Joel Wolf. At first it was,
Speaker 3: oh my god, our meetings in four days. We have
Speaker 3: to scramble and you know, put the us together. The
Speaker 3: second was I thought it was really smart. His velocity
Speaker 3: was down. It was stuff that we had talked about,
Speaker 3: and for him to solicit opinions from other teams coming
Speaker 3: in a speaks to his curiosity and desire to be great,
Speaker 3: but also gives him real insight into how an organization
Speaker 3: works together, how they think through things, what kind of
Speaker 3: technology they have access to, which we feel like is
Speaker 3: in our sweet spot. So we were really excited about
Speaker 3: that opportunity, and we're able to talk through from training
Speaker 3: room to weight room to mound, from our pitching coaches,
Speaker 3: to our performance coaches, to our training staff, how connected
Speaker 3: they are the reports that are generated after a start.
Speaker 3: Because the point was there were some changes in his delivery,
Speaker 3: and our point was about how we're on things like that,
Speaker 3: either end game or the.
Speaker 2: Next day after a start.
Speaker 3: So we would never let something go that long without
Speaker 3: addressing it, and so we were able to speak to
Speaker 3: what we saw as the differences how we would proactively
Speaker 3: go about addressing it. And again, I think just the
Speaker 3: way everyone is so connected from our front office, performance
Speaker 3: science group down into our clubhouse and the way everyone
Speaker 3: works so well together really came through.
Speaker 1: How do you manage a picture like him? He's so unique,
Speaker 1: twenty three years old, you got a full one sixty
Speaker 1: two season. We saw there's an adjustment period. How do
Speaker 1: you what vision do you have as far as the
Speaker 1: way you may deploy him?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for us, we need to be around
Speaker 3: him more to have a better feel for that. We
Speaker 3: don't have a great feel right now for how he
Speaker 3: recovers and what is routine is between starts. It'll probably
Speaker 3: be different here. He's still learning that, and so it's
Speaker 3: one of those things that we're going to partner with him.
Speaker 3: And we're going to help him figure out what makes
Speaker 3: the most sense. He's have some great guys to look
Speaker 3: around the clubhouse and pick their brain on it as well,
Speaker 3: and we'll figure out that in between start routine, and
Speaker 3: then we're gonna let him go, and then we'll figure
Speaker 3: out as we get into the year how he's doing,
Speaker 3: how he's maintaining his stuff. But this guy is incredibly talented,
Speaker 3: but there's still real development left. And his desire is
Speaker 3: to be the first Japanese pitcher to win a SI
Speaker 3: Young Award.
Speaker 2: He definitely has that ability.
Speaker 3: And you know, between his ability, the curiosity, the work ethic,
Speaker 3: the determination, and our staff, we think there's a chance
Speaker 3: for really special things to happen.
Speaker 1: How many man hours have you put in trying to
Speaker 1: scout him be prepared for this moment, Andrew, this was
Speaker 1: not a few weeks or a few months, This was
Speaker 1: a few years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know how to answer that, but I
Speaker 3: know that Galen Carr it would have been cheaper had
Speaker 3: he just gotten in a part artment in Japan. You know,
Speaker 3: he spent so much time over there just watching him
Speaker 3: and obviously we couldn't have contact, but I think he
Speaker 3: could feel our presence.
Speaker 2: He knew the teams that were there, he knew that
Speaker 2: a vice.
Speaker 3: President from the Dodgers, I think, was there, and it
Speaker 3: was a sign of respect, but also our strong desire
Speaker 3: to partner with him at some point and the potential
Speaker 3: upside that comes with that. But there were a lot
Speaker 3: of people, you know who Rokie's been on the radar
Speaker 3: for years now and then even just this process, just
Speaker 3: a number of people who stepped up and contributed, from Sue,
Speaker 3: Joe and Hunter helping us put together videos and anime,
Speaker 3: you know, to obviously our QA group and our performance
Speaker 3: science and our Scouts and just the whole group, Tyrone
Speaker 3: and Kristen in the kitchen to talk through that.
Speaker 2: Just every different.
Speaker 3: Department had their fingerprints on this, to ensure that we
Speaker 3: were putting our best foot forward.
Speaker 1: That doesn't sound like and Andrew Freeman that thought he
Speaker 1: had Roki Sazaki in the bag two years ago, three
Speaker 1: years ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can ask my cardiologists. We definitely did not. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, there's gonna be noise. It's so ridiculous.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: The funniest for me is people who said before the
Speaker 3: process started always going to go to the Dodgers and
Speaker 3: then he went to the Dodgers and like, see the
Speaker 3: fix is in. It's like, no, the reason you thought
Speaker 3: he was going to come to the Dodgers were pretty
Speaker 3: compelling reasons, and he agreed and felt like we would
Speaker 3: be the best place to partner with our city, our fans,
Speaker 3: our ability to help make players better, friends, and familiar.
Speaker 2: Faces that he already knows.
Speaker 3: There are so many reasons that we felt like, and
Speaker 3: obviously we were biased that it made sense, but we
Speaker 3: weren't sure how I was gonna land with a twenty
Speaker 3: three year old and having Yoshinobu and show, hey, we're
Speaker 3: either gonna be incredibly helpful or the exact opposite, and
Speaker 3: we weren't sure which one.
Speaker 1: Andrew, You've been the most aggressive GM Baseball Operations department
Speaker 1: all off season long. It feels like even though we're
Speaker 1: just a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting,
Speaker 1: it still feels like the wheels are turning and you
Speaker 1: still feel like you could make this roster just fit better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we talk about this a lot. We
Speaker 3: can't find the off switch. We're always looking for opportunities
Speaker 3: to make this team better. Sometimes it doesn't line up
Speaker 3: and work out. Sometimes it does, but it will never
Speaker 3: stop our effort and trying to figure out things that
Speaker 3: make sense for us to make us better.
Speaker 1: You clean up really nice for these press conferences that man.
Speaker 1: I wish I could have seen you two weeks ago,
Speaker 1: see what Andrew Friedman's life was like.
Speaker 3: First of all, there are some pretty heavy bags under
Speaker 3: my eyes. Second one, I got to return this suit
Speaker 3: by six, so we gotta get going.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, and congratulations to not only you, but
Speaker 1: your scuting department on the Pacific RIM because I know
Speaker 1: you give them a lot of credit. You don't do
Speaker 1: it all by yourself, So congratulations to the entire organization.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: And that's what's most special. It's just how many different
Speaker 3: people played a part in this. And I don't know,
Speaker 3: but I feel like if you take out any one
Speaker 3: of those pieces, it's like a Jenga where it just
Speaker 3: falls down. So for us to all band together and
Speaker 3: do this together and get to this outcome is really special.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you got a full head of hair.
Speaker 1: You didn't pull it all out. We'll see you in
Speaker 1: spring training.
Speaker 2: Thanks Dave.