Joel Sherman on what's next for those fancy boys in Hollywood...
The Dodgers were a Hollywood blockbuster gone wrong.
The budget was bloated and the cast full of stars. But, ultimately, the script was not good enough. On paper, the Dodgers should have been champions.
Instead, they closed barely after opening — one week of the playoffs, five games against the Mets, just two wins. Thus, the most expensive roster ever ($310 million-plus) now must be transitioned further.
No club faces larger decisions involving bigger names than the Dodgers — notably what to do about Don Mattingly, Zack Greinke and Yasiel Puig.
Sherman's subsequent analysis is clear-eyed, but I'd like to offer mine, too...
Mattingly: Fire him if you know someone else who's as good in the clubhouse and has a way with relief pitchers. Otherwise what's the point? Change just for change's sake? Change of management isn't a hallmark of success; stability is.
Greinke: It's only money. If you're the Dodgers and you don't sign Greinke or Zimmermann or Price, then you lost the off-season.
Puig: Keep him or trade him, you really can't go wrong. At least not as far as we can say, now. If you keep him, he might well have a monster season. But he's signed through 2018, for cheap. Which means he's got a great deal of value to other teams, too. Which means if you do trade him, you can get some real value in return. Which isn't so bad.
I suspect the Dodgers will be exceptionally active this winter, because I don't think Andrew Friedman knows another way to be. So in addition to answer those three question marks, there will be any number of others. First on the list, though, might be the dispensation of Carl Crawford's services, as he's signed through 2017 but is quite obviously the weak link on the roster.
