Dodgers’ front office already an open field for Andrew Friedman

Existing contracts may prevent Andrew Friedman from remaking the Dodgers on the field as significantly as he’d like, but he’ll have no such issues in the front office.

With amateur scouting vice president Logan White leaving the Dodgers on Monday to take a similar position with the Padres, Friedman will now get to name his own people to the three positions that have traditionally defined a team’s front office – general manager, farm director and scouting director.

De Jon Watson left his position as vice president of player development to join the Diamondbacks before Friedman was officially hired as the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations. General Manager Ned Colletti was moved over to make room for Friedman, who will hire his own GM, and now scouting director.

It must be nervous time for much of the remaining front office brass.

If there’s no obvious indication White was pushed out by Friedman, there also isn’t any that he tried hard to keep him. Reading between the lines makes for a dangerous lifestyle, but I think it’s safe to assume Friedman naturally wants his own people in place.

One of those will presumably be Josh Byrnes, the two-time former GM who has been cozying up to Dodgers brass in Phoenix at Arizona Fall League games. Where he fits is apparently still being worked out.

Like anyone in his position, White had his share of hits and misses, but it seems clear he came out well ahead on the positive side. He not only drafted significant players, he was a force behind signing Hyun-Jin Ryu and Yasiel Puig.

Now he’ll be the senior advisor – isn’t that just getting to be a popular title? – and director of pro scouting to new Padres GM A.J. Preller. With the Dodgers, his official title was vice president of amateur scouting.