LOS ANGELES – It’s develop into a Spring Coaching custom for previous buddies Andrew Friedman and Matt Arnold, who return to the mid-2000s as younger executives with the plucky Rays. Each March, they meet for dinner at The Gladly within the Biltmore neighborhood of Phoenix.
And so they all the time invite a 3rd: Brewers supervisor Pat Murphy.
“Clearly these are two nice baseball minds,” Murphy stated. “I believe they simply need me there to snort at me.”
Simply as believable is that Friedman, 48, and Arnold, 46, have been buddies so lengthy, they’ve run out of issues to speak about.
“We return a great distance and we’ve been via loads,” Arnold stated.
“I’ve identified Matt Arnold for a very long time. I believe what him and his staff have finished is unbelievable – not shocking,” Friedman stated. “The eye to element, the best way the roster suits collectively, it is actually spectacular.”
Lengthy earlier than Friedman’s Dodgers and Arnold’s Brewers met once more on this Nationwide League Championship Collection – the Dodgers lead the collection, 2-0, going into Thursday’s Sport 3 – they honed their philosophies within the Rays’ places of work at Tropicana Discipline. Arnold recollects early mornings within the workplace, sitting round a giant desk sipping espresso with a bunch of keen executives that included Friedman, Eric Neander, Chaim Bloom, James Click on and Arnold, all of whom would sooner or later “develop up” to run their very own baseball operations division.
Then, they have been all discovering their means.
“We had a Nintendo within the workplace. It was that sort of place,” Arnold stated. “It was sort of the youngsters working the asylum just a little bit.”
When Arnold arrived after the 2005 season, Friedman, 28 on the time, had simply been promoted to government vp of baseball operations and GM. He’d changed Chuck LaMar, a basic baseball man with an extended historical past in scouting and participant growth who’d been assistant GM of the perennial NL East-champion Braves when the Rays – or the Satan Rays, as they have been initially identified – employed him as their first GM. After a shedding document in every of the brand new franchise’s first eight seasons, nevertheless, it was time for a change to Friedman, a Tulane graduate who labored in finance earlier than breaking into baseball with Tampa Bay.
Arnold realized one factor early on about working for Friedman: You’d higher be ready.
“Andrew was very exhausting on us. He would shred you if you happen to weren’t able to go,” Arnold stated. “However he was additionally your pal, you realize what I imply? It was like, if you happen to’re not prepared, he’s going to carve you up. However if you happen to convey your A sport, it’s going to be an excellent dialog.
“I liked that all of us had very completely different views within the room. He was in a position to convey us collectively and assist us make good choices. And he made a ton of them.”
They made them collectively. Friedman made certain Arnold acquired some credit score for that.
“He is an excellent evaluator. He was in the course of a whole lot of issues that we did and had success with the Rays,” Friedman stated. “Extremely exhausting working, curious. Simply watching him proceed to develop and develop has been enjoyable to observe.”
Their jobs at this time are the identical – construct a roster to compete for a playoff berth and, finally, win the World Collection. And but the roles are completely different in so some ways, most notably the assets obtainable to every man. Six gamers – Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Freddie Freeman and Tyler Glasnow (who will begin Sport 3 for L.A.) – every have a contract dedication from the Dodgers that exceed the Brewers’ complete participant payroll in 2025.
And but the Brewers below Arnold, the reigning MLB Govt of the 12 months and a veteran of Milwaukee’s entrance workplace since he got here from Tampa Bay to be David Stearns’ assistant GM following the 2015 season, have hung in there. Since rising from a mini-rebuild for the beginning of 2017, Milwaukee has received the fourth-most regular-season video games within the Majors (763), trailing solely the Dodgers (853), Astros (806) and Yankees (788).
It was with Tampa Bay that each Arnold and Friedman experimented with the completely different strategies of constructing profitable groups. It took them to a World Collection in 2008.
“We have been in a position to run the Rays like an Etch A Sketch, just a little bit,” Arnold stated. “You can shake it up and say, ‘Let’s do that.’ We have been the Satan Rays, you realize what I imply? It was like, ‘We haven’t been superb, so let’s strive one thing new.
“There’s all the time a blessing and a curse, proper? Clearly, our payrolls have been very, very low. However we had the chance to be tremendous inventive and check out off-the-wall stuff. There have been no dangerous concepts.”
There was a freedom to it, Arnold has stated many instances. And in some methods, there’s a freedom to the method in Milwaukee, although the Brewers’ success has pushed expectations greater and better.
In Los Angeles, the expectations yearly are precisely the identical: Win the World Collection or bust. Friedman’s rosters have achieved that twice prior to now 5 years, the shortened 2020 season and once more in 2024.
“I believe understanding who you’re and what it is advisable to do to have success – it is completely different for each market,” Friedman stated. “However staying true to who you’re, having a bunch that works rather well collectively, I believe collaboration all through departments is essential as a result of you need to do it in a much less standard means.
“I used to provide this analogy once I was with the Rays. If you consider [being a] physician, we have been in a position to be knee specialists and know each single factor in regards to the knee. We did not have to fret about every other a part of the physique. And I got here to the Dodgers, and it was, like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve to study every part in regards to the physique.’ And so in several conditions, it is understanding who you’re, what your benefits are and attacking that.”
That’s one of many issues Friedman respects about what his pal has finished in Milwaukee.
“I believe they’ve finished that exceptionally effectively,” Friedman stated.
Arnold stated he has adopted Friedman’s behavior of getting the women and men of his entrance workplace round a desk to speak baseball every time attainable – nose to nose. As anybody who works for a giant, advanced company can relate to, that’s not all the time widespread today.
“I don’t need us to be buddies and coworkers over e-mail,” Arnold stated.
Head to head all the time labored greatest in Tampa Bay.
“I nonetheless take into consideration that each day,” Arnold stated. “We’re a mixture of all of the individuals who work right here, and I really like that.”
