Dodgers News: Andrew Friedman Feels as Confident as Ever Despite Lack of Closer

Despite the looming question mark in the Dodgers pitching unit, President Andrew Friedman believes the team will be fine

Every Dodgers fan fear may come to fruition as the Dodgers have yet to decide on a consistent closer for the postseason. Even with the demotion of Craig Kimbrel and still no true solution, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman's confidence remains at an all time high. And rightfully so.

Even with the questions surrounding the pitching unit, the Dodgers still finished with the best record in baseball (best in franchise history) and were torching teams pitching and hitting with the best run differential in the league. There could be a lot worse results surrounding such a situation.

Friedman attributes his confidence to the depth the team has showed all season long (quotes via Bill Plunkett, The OC Register).

“I think it’s arguably our deepest staff, 1 through 13, and I think we’re going to have a lot of different ways to prevent runs. My sense is that we’re going to do anything and everything we can to prevent runs and one of the remaining guys who hasn’t been called on yet will pitch the ninth. We trust a pretty big number of guys to get those outs.”

Friedman also shows full confidence in his coaching staff who have dealt with the adversity of injuries all season long. Yet, they have been put in the best position possible. 

“Mark (Prior), Doc (Dave Roberts), Connor (McGuiness), Danny Lehman, Josh Bard – their ability to create margin for error by matchups and getting guys in their best lanes just increases the chances of us being able to execute on it. Would we like to have a shut-down, no-doubt-about-it, ninth-inning guy? Yeah – everybody in baseball would. We have a lot of really talented guys and we feel like we’ll be in a really good position to get 27 outs and give our offense every chance to win games and win series.”

All that matters now is the Dodgers winning games to move deeper into the postseason. If the regular season was any indication, the Dodgers will do just that despite playing against a very talent Padres team in the NLDS.