This has felt like the mantra for the last few offseasons: trade away the bad contracts and stay reluctant, very reluctant, on the free agent market. As Andrew Friedman, the now stand-alone general manager of the Dodgers once said: “the track record is just not so good.” He was, of course, talking only about signing free agent relievers but lately, that ideology has rung truer in a broader sense than the GM originally intended.
The Dodgers operate under that same caution when it comes to free agents in general and can even be stretched to the trade market.