California

Bill Beane Protege Named New Dodgers GM

Farhan Zaidi becomes the 11th general manager in Los Angeles Dodgers history

The Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday filled two important front office vacancies by naming Farhan Zaidi the club’s new general manager and Josh Byrnes senior vice president of baseball operations.

Zaidi comes from the Oakland A’s where he spent the last 10 seasons working for A’s general manager, and moneyball maven, Billy Beane. The 37-year-old rose in the ranks from doing sabermetrics analytics to director of baseball operations in 2013 and serving his one, and only, year as assistant general manager to Beane during the 2014 season.

Byrnes comes to the Dodgers from the San Diego Padres where he served as executive vice president and general manager for the past three seasons. He also held the same post with the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2005 through 2010.

β€œFarhan's primary focus will be the Major League team and player acquisitions while Josh will concentrate on the oversight of scouting and player development,” Andrew Friedman, Dodger President of Baseball Operations, said in a statement.

Byrnes is a career baseball man. He started his career as a scout in the Cleveland Indians organization and he later became the assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox team that won the 2004 World Series.

Zaidi is an academic who has shown his baseball acumen through his manipulation of numbers. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and worked in the business world as a consultant. Friedman will need Zaidi to be good at manipulating the Dodgers bloated payroll and turn a perennial playoff team into a World Series contender.

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