January 22, 2025 • 9 mins
David Vassegh goes one-on-one with the Dodgers President of Baseball Operations about the signing of superstar Roki Sasaki and how much time and energy went into landing the Japanese right hander
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Andrew Freeman, a big day, a big smile. I know
there's been a lot of sleepless nights for you. Can
you exhale now?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
I mean there were definitely a lot of knights up
pulling our hair out and worried about, you know, what
kind of decision he was going to make. And we
felt like we put our best foot forward. It was
so many different departments and people contributing to ensure that.
But obviously there are a lot of great teams out there.
(00:27):
And until I actually got the text from Show Hey
that said we got him who beat the agent to
the punch? But until that moment, we weren't sure.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
When you got that text, did you believe it? Was
it similar to the feeling you had last year when
you got the news that Otani had chosen the Dodgers
as well?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, I knew show he wouldn't mess with me, just
not his personality. I had to like clear my eyes
and read it again because I didn't expect it to
come from Show Hey. But when I saw it, did
a double take and then realized what he was saying,
and just pure excitement. We had a bunch of guys
around the office and everyone was just fired up.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
We've heard so much about the courting process, about having
the dinners, about Otani and Yamamoto having a dinner with him.
How much do you believe that comfort led to him
choosing the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, I mean I think you know.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Obviously his prior relationship with Shohei and Yoshinobu definitely helps.
They were able to talk to him through this and
not in a salesman type way, just be honest with
their experiences and how they think it would help Roki,
which I think was incredibly valuable.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And then even beyond that, just the.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Number of guys we had either in person or send
in a video, and the video was guys saying how
well we take care of players, take care of players families,
and help make guys better. And it was almost to
a man. We didn't script it with anyone, and almost
to a man, that's how all the videos came back.
(02:07):
So the reason we wanted to do that was for
Rokie as he's making this decision and he's thinking, Okay,
I like the Dodgers, I like what they're about, I
think they can help make me better. But I wonder
how it would be received in the clubhouse. I just
don't know that we had the vast majority of our roster,
either in person or on video, tell him how much
(02:30):
they want him to be their teammate.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
What's this about the homework assignment? How accurate is that
that he was asking the Dodgers and other teams how
he can get better, how he could get his fastball better?
And how comfortable were you sharing what your thoughts would be.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, there's a couple of things in that one. When
we got the question from Joel Wolf. At first it was,
oh my god, our meetings in four days. We have
to scramble and you know, put the us together. The
second was I thought it was really smart. His velocity
was down. It was stuff that we had talked about,
(03:08):
and for him to solicit opinions from other teams coming
in a speaks to his curiosity and desire to be great,
but also gives him real insight into how an organization
works together, how they think through things, what kind of
technology they have access to, which we feel like is
in our sweet spot. So we were really excited about
(03:30):
that opportunity, and we're able to talk through from training
room to weight room to mound, from our pitching coaches,
to our performance coaches, to our training staff, how connected
they are the reports that are generated after a start.
Because the point was there were some changes in his delivery,
and our point was about how we're on things like that,
(03:54):
either end game or the.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Next day after a start.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So we would never let something go that long without
addressing it, and so we were able to speak to
what we saw as the differences how we would proactively
go about addressing it. And again, I think just the
way everyone is so connected from our front office, performance
science group down into our clubhouse and the way everyone
(04:21):
works so well together really came through.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
How do you manage a picture like him? He's so unique,
twenty three years old, you got a full one sixty
two season. We saw there's an adjustment period. How do
you what vision do you have as far as the
way you may deploy him?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, I mean for us, we need to be around
him more to have a better feel for that. We
don't have a great feel right now for how he
recovers and what is routine is between starts. It'll probably
be different here. He's still learning that, and so it's
one of those things that we're going to partner with him.
And we're going to help him figure out what makes
(04:58):
the most sense. He's have some great guys to look
around the clubhouse and pick their brain on it as well,
and we'll figure out that in between start routine, and
then we're gonna let him go, and then we'll figure
out as we get into the year how he's doing,
how he's maintaining his stuff. But this guy is incredibly talented,
(05:21):
but there's still real development left. And his desire is
to be the first Japanese pitcher to win a SI
Young Award.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He definitely has that ability.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
And you know, between his ability, the curiosity, the work ethic,
the determination, and our staff, we think there's a chance
for really special things to happen.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
How many man hours have you put in trying to
scout him be prepared for this moment, Andrew, this was
not a few weeks or a few months, This was
a few years.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, I don't know how to answer that, but I
know that Galen Carr it would have been cheaper had
he just gotten in a part artment in Japan. You know,
he spent so much time over there just watching him
and obviously we couldn't have contact, but I think he
could feel our presence.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
He knew the teams that were there, he knew that
a vice.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
President from the Dodgers, I think, was there, and it
was a sign of respect, but also our strong desire
to partner with him at some point and the potential
upside that comes with that. But there were a lot
of people, you know who Rokie's been on the radar
for years now and then even just this process, just
(06:37):
a number of people who stepped up and contributed, from Sue,
Joe and Hunter helping us put together videos and anime,
you know, to obviously our QA group and our performance
science and our Scouts and just the whole group, Tyrone
and Kristen in the kitchen to talk through that.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Just every different.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Department had their fingerprints on this, to ensure that we
were putting our best foot forward.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
That doesn't sound like and Andrew Freeman that thought he
had Roki Sazaki in the bag two years ago, three
years ago.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, you can ask my cardiologists. We definitely did not. Yeah,
I mean, there's gonna be noise. It's so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
The funniest for me is people who said before the
process started always going to go to the Dodgers and
then he went to the Dodgers and like, see the
fix is in. It's like, no, the reason you thought
he was going to come to the Dodgers were pretty
compelling reasons, and he agreed and felt like we would
be the best place to partner with our city, our fans,
(07:44):
our ability to help make players better, friends, and familiar.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Faces that he already knows.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
There are so many reasons that we felt like, and
obviously we were biased that it made sense, but we
weren't sure how I was gonna land with a twenty
three year old and having Yoshinobu and show, hey, we're
either gonna be incredibly helpful or the exact opposite, and
we weren't sure which one.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Andrew, You've been the most aggressive GM Baseball Operations department
all off season long. It feels like even though we're
just a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting,
it still feels like the wheels are turning and you
still feel like you could make this roster just fit better.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, I mean we talk about this a lot. We
can't find the off switch. We're always looking for opportunities
to make this team better. Sometimes it doesn't line up
and work out. Sometimes it does, but it will never
stop our effort and trying to figure out things that
make sense for us to make us better.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
You clean up really nice for these press conferences that man.
I wish I could have seen you two weeks ago,
see what Andrew Friedman's life was like.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
First of all, there are some pretty heavy bags under
my eyes. Second one, I got to return this suit
by six, so we gotta get going.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Thanks a lot, and congratulations to not only you, but
your scuting department on the Pacific RIM because I know
you give them a lot of credit. You don't do
it all by yourself, So congratulations to the entire organization.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
And that's what's most special. It's just how many different
people played a part in this. And I don't know,
but I feel like if you take out any one
of those pieces, it's like a Jenga where it just
falls down. So for us to all band together and
do this together and get to this outcome is really special.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Well, I'm glad you got a full head of hair.
You didn't pull it all out. We'll see you in
spring training.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Thanks Dave.
Andrew Freeman, a big day, a big smile. I know
there's been a lot of sleepless nights for you. Can
you exhale now?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
I mean there were definitely a lot of knights up
pulling our hair out and worried about, you know, what
kind of decision he was going to make. And we
felt like we put our best foot forward. It was
so many different departments and people contributing to ensure that.
But obviously there are a lot of great teams out there.
(00:27):
And until I actually got the text from Show Hey
that said we got him who beat the agent to
the punch? But until that moment, we weren't sure.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
When you got that text, did you believe it? Was
it similar to the feeling you had last year when
you got the news that Otani had chosen the Dodgers
as well?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, I knew show he wouldn't mess with me, just
not his personality. I had to like clear my eyes
and read it again because I didn't expect it to
come from Show Hey. But when I saw it, did
a double take and then realized what he was saying,
and just pure excitement. We had a bunch of guys
around the office and everyone was just fired up.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
We've heard so much about the courting process, about having
the dinners, about Otani and Yamamoto having a dinner with him.
How much do you believe that comfort led to him
choosing the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, I mean I think you know.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Obviously his prior relationship with Shohei and Yoshinobu definitely helps.
They were able to talk to him through this and
not in a salesman type way, just be honest with
their experiences and how they think it would help Roki,
which I think was incredibly valuable.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And then even beyond that, just the.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Number of guys we had either in person or send
in a video, and the video was guys saying how
well we take care of players, take care of players families,
and help make guys better. And it was almost to
a man. We didn't script it with anyone, and almost
to a man, that's how all the videos came back.
(02:07):
So the reason we wanted to do that was for
Rokie as he's making this decision and he's thinking, Okay,
I like the Dodgers, I like what they're about, I
think they can help make me better. But I wonder
how it would be received in the clubhouse. I just
don't know that we had the vast majority of our roster,
either in person or on video, tell him how much
(02:30):
they want him to be their teammate.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
What's this about the homework assignment? How accurate is that
that he was asking the Dodgers and other teams how
he can get better, how he could get his fastball better?
And how comfortable were you sharing what your thoughts would be.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, there's a couple of things in that one. When
we got the question from Joel Wolf. At first it was,
oh my god, our meetings in four days. We have
to scramble and you know, put the us together. The
second was I thought it was really smart. His velocity
was down. It was stuff that we had talked about,
(03:08):
and for him to solicit opinions from other teams coming
in a speaks to his curiosity and desire to be great,
but also gives him real insight into how an organization
works together, how they think through things, what kind of
technology they have access to, which we feel like is
in our sweet spot. So we were really excited about
(03:30):
that opportunity, and we're able to talk through from training
room to weight room to mound, from our pitching coaches,
to our performance coaches, to our training staff, how connected
they are the reports that are generated after a start.
Because the point was there were some changes in his delivery,
and our point was about how we're on things like that,
(03:54):
either end game or the.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Next day after a start.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So we would never let something go that long without
addressing it, and so we were able to speak to
what we saw as the differences how we would proactively
go about addressing it. And again, I think just the
way everyone is so connected from our front office, performance
science group down into our clubhouse and the way everyone
(04:21):
works so well together really came through.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
How do you manage a picture like him? He's so unique,
twenty three years old, you got a full one sixty
two season. We saw there's an adjustment period. How do
you what vision do you have as far as the
way you may deploy him?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, I mean for us, we need to be around
him more to have a better feel for that. We
don't have a great feel right now for how he
recovers and what is routine is between starts. It'll probably
be different here. He's still learning that, and so it's
one of those things that we're going to partner with him.
And we're going to help him figure out what makes
(04:58):
the most sense. He's have some great guys to look
around the clubhouse and pick their brain on it as well,
and we'll figure out that in between start routine, and
then we're gonna let him go, and then we'll figure
out as we get into the year how he's doing,
how he's maintaining his stuff. But this guy is incredibly talented,
(05:21):
but there's still real development left. And his desire is
to be the first Japanese pitcher to win a SI
Young Award.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He definitely has that ability.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
And you know, between his ability, the curiosity, the work ethic,
the determination, and our staff, we think there's a chance
for really special things to happen.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
How many man hours have you put in trying to
scout him be prepared for this moment, Andrew, this was
not a few weeks or a few months, This was
a few years.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, I don't know how to answer that, but I
know that Galen Carr it would have been cheaper had
he just gotten in a part artment in Japan. You know,
he spent so much time over there just watching him
and obviously we couldn't have contact, but I think he
could feel our presence.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
He knew the teams that were there, he knew that
a vice.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
President from the Dodgers, I think, was there, and it
was a sign of respect, but also our strong desire
to partner with him at some point and the potential
upside that comes with that. But there were a lot
of people, you know who Rokie's been on the radar
for years now and then even just this process, just
(06:37):
a number of people who stepped up and contributed, from Sue,
Joe and Hunter helping us put together videos and anime,
you know, to obviously our QA group and our performance
science and our Scouts and just the whole group, Tyrone
and Kristen in the kitchen to talk through that.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Just every different.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Department had their fingerprints on this, to ensure that we
were putting our best foot forward.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
That doesn't sound like and Andrew Freeman that thought he
had Roki Sazaki in the bag two years ago, three
years ago.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, you can ask my cardiologists. We definitely did not. Yeah,
I mean, there's gonna be noise. It's so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
The funniest for me is people who said before the
process started always going to go to the Dodgers and
then he went to the Dodgers and like, see the
fix is in. It's like, no, the reason you thought
he was going to come to the Dodgers were pretty
compelling reasons, and he agreed and felt like we would
be the best place to partner with our city, our fans,
(07:44):
our ability to help make players better, friends, and familiar.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Faces that he already knows.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
There are so many reasons that we felt like, and
obviously we were biased that it made sense, but we
weren't sure how I was gonna land with a twenty
three year old and having Yoshinobu and show, hey, we're
either gonna be incredibly helpful or the exact opposite, and
we weren't sure which one.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Andrew, You've been the most aggressive GM Baseball Operations department
all off season long. It feels like even though we're
just a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting,
it still feels like the wheels are turning and you
still feel like you could make this roster just fit better.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, I mean we talk about this a lot. We
can't find the off switch. We're always looking for opportunities
to make this team better. Sometimes it doesn't line up
and work out. Sometimes it does, but it will never
stop our effort and trying to figure out things that
make sense for us to make us better.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
You clean up really nice for these press conferences that man.
I wish I could have seen you two weeks ago,
see what Andrew Friedman's life was like.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
First of all, there are some pretty heavy bags under
my eyes. Second one, I got to return this suit
by six, so we gotta get going.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Thanks a lot, and congratulations to not only you, but
your scuting department on the Pacific RIM because I know
you give them a lot of credit. You don't do
it all by yourself, So congratulations to the entire organization.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
And that's what's most special. It's just how many different
people played a part in this. And I don't know,
but I feel like if you take out any one
of those pieces, it's like a Jenga where it just
falls down. So for us to all band together and
do this together and get to this outcome is really special.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Well, I'm glad you got a full head of hair.
You didn't pull it all out. We'll see you in
spring training.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Thanks Dave.
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