LOS ANGELES — Per week after the Dodgers’ loss to the D-backs within the 2023 Nationwide League Division Sequence, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman known as Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Friedman wished to let each gamers know that the Dodgers can be among the many aggressive suitors for Shohei Ohtani within the offseason. A part of that decision, as Friedman has achieved all through his profession, was simply to maintain each of his stars within the loop. One more reason was to provide each gamers an opportunity to share any ideas they may have had.
In actuality, not each big-name athlete — in baseball or throughout every other sport — is prepared to share the highlight. It takes the best star to make that work. Within the case of Freeman and Betts, the Dodgers had that in place, permitting Ohtani’s stardom to take heart stage.
“While you put items right into a puzzle, typically they don’t match,” Freeman stated. “But it surely appeared like they did all their work and their background, the folks and it simply match. It’s a very good group. … That plan took me aback after I heard it, however they nailed it.”
Freeman and Betts have each been the faces of a franchise prior to now. Freeman was the chief for a very long time with the Braves. Betts shared the identical duty in the direction of the tip of his tenure with the Pink Sox and was the unquestioned chief of the Dodgers’ group by the tip of the 2023 season.
At this stage of their careers, nonetheless, Betts and Freeman aren’t involved with all that comes with being the face of a franchise.
“I don’t suppose anyone cares about it,” Betts stated. “I don’t wish to say we don’t wish to do it, however it’s not on anybody’s agenda to be the face of something. I feel all of us simply wish to win and we don’t care how we do it or who’s answerable for it. I feel that’s the fantastic thing about us.”
Betts, Freeman and the remainder of the Dodgers’ roster understood including Ohtani can be a distinct monster. In a sport in opposition to the Angels final season, a number of gamers seen how a lot media presence was round earlier than the sport. Some questioned if that was going to be the norm if the Dodgers added Ohtani in some unspecified time in the future.
They shortly bought their reply after they had a number of cameras pointing at them from the second they entered Camelback Ranch on the primary day of Spring Coaching. Contained in the clubhouse, what was once someplace between seven to 10 media members every day out of the blue multiplied by 4 or 5 occasions on any given day.
Amidst the craziness, no person would have blamed both Betts or Freeman for complaining. A lot of the questions had been about their new star teammate; fewer had been about their very own greatness.
However Freeman and Betts did the alternative. As a substitute, they’d exit of their method to make Ohtani really feel at dwelling along with his new membership.
“Apart from them being distinctive gamers, simply having the ability to see every of them work and put together each single day and the way they go about it within the clubhouse,” Ohtani stated by interpreter Will Ireton. “It has been one thing that actually stood out to me and has actually helped me within the course of.”
With 4 extra wins in opposition to the Yankees, the three Dodgers superstars will obtain what they signed up for. All of them perceive their championship window collectively runs just for a pair extra seasons. In the event that they get there, nonetheless, lots of the credit score will come all the way down to the sacrifice all of them wanted to make firstly of the season, one which was mandatory for this to all work out.
“It’s actually essential to have your star gamers set the tone,” Friedman stated. “Relying on how they deal with that stardom and duty has a reasonably main impression on the tradition of your crew. For us, past the apparent expertise with Shohei, Freddie and Mookie, who they’re, what sort of teammates they’re, these had been actually robust elements as properly once we made our resolution to be as aggressive as we had been.”
