Andrew Friedman said that “in a vacuum,” the Dodgers would want all five of their premier free agents — pitchers Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw, shortstop Corey Seager, utility man Chris Taylor and closer Kenley Jansen — to return in 2022.
In reality, that’s not going to happen, unless the club is willing to push its payroll beyond the $300-million mark, which seems like a stretch even for the deep-pocketed Guggenheim Partners ownership group.
“I didn’t say that realistically,” Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations, said at baseball’s general managers meetings Wednesday.