Dodgers add Andrew Friedman to front office

Under their deep-pocketed owners, the Dodgers have imported several star players, as well as a star advisor in Sandy Koufax and a star coach in Mark McGwire.

Now they have a rising star front-office executive. On Tuesday, the team announced it had lured Andrew Friedman from the Tampa Bay Rays to replace Ned Colletti as the head of baseball operations.

Friedman, 37, assumes the new title of president of baseball operations; Colletti was reassigned from general manager to an advisory role that insiders described as ceremonial.

President Stan Kasten said the front-office shake-up wasn’t a reaction to the Dodgers’ first-round elimination from the playoffs. “This is about our ability to add Andrew Friedman, specifically,” he said.

A former Wall Street analyst who was the general manager of the Rays for nine seasons, Friedman is known for building contenders with minimal financial backing. Under Friedman, the low-budget Rays reached the World Series in 2008; they also reached the playoffs in 2010, 2011 and 2013.

Friedman will take control of a team that spent $240 million on player salaries this year, about three times what the Rays spent. The trade-off is less autonomy. With the Dodgers, he will report to Kasten, the team’s hands-on president.

“Like in any department, you run things by your department head, by your president, OK?” Kasten said. “I expect to be involved in helping him, like I’ve been involved in other teams.

“It’s going to continue to work that way here. It worked fine in Atlanta, it worked fine in Washington and I think it worked fine here.”

Friedman, who will be officially introduced in Los Angeles later, was not available for comment. Kasten said he anticipates Friedman will hire a general manager to work under him. Bryan Minniti, who has worked with Kasten and stepped down as the assistant general manager of the Nationals last week, is available.

There will be other changes in the front office, Kasten said. However, Friedman figures to inherit a coaching staff that includes Manager Don Mattingly, who is under contract through the 2016 season.

“We have a lot of stuff that we’re not going to discuss with you, but you should expect Donnie to be here,” Kasten told reporters.

In all nine seasons that Friedman was the general manager in Tampa Bay, his manager was Joe Maddon, a former Angels coach who lives in Long Beach during the off-season. Maddon’s contract expires at the end of next season.

Maddon downplayed speculation he could move to Los Angeles with Friedman, saying he expects to talk to the Rays about a contract extension this winter. “I want to continue to be a Ray, absolutely,” Maddon said. “They have to want me to be a Ray too.”

Stuart Sternberg, principal owner of the Rays, said during a conference call that no other members of his front-office would be taking positions with the Dodgers.

Kasten refused to say why he felt a drastic change was required to the Dodgers’ front office. In Colletti’s nine years as general manager, the Dodgers reached the playoffs five times. Colletti’s teams won 783 games, more than any other National League general manager over that span.

Though Kasten said it was important to him that Colletti remain with the Dodgers, people with knowledge of the situation said Colletti’s new role with the team would be minimal.

“This is a nice way of letting Ned have some graceful exit,” one person said.

When Colletti was asked if he viewed his reassignment as a demotion, Kasten cut in, “Wait, wait, wait. It’s a moving over. That’s how we feel. A moving aside.”

Colletti was downcast but dignified as he and Kasten spoke to a small group of reporters Tuesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

“I’ve been humbled to be here for as long as I’ve been here,” said Colletti, who was hired by then-owner Frank McCourt in November 2005.

Colletti’s reign included two appearances in the National League Championship Series, but also the failed high-priced signings of players such as Jason Schmidt, Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones. That penchant for expensive blunders was particularly costly this season, as Colletti spent more than $30 million constructing an ineffective bullpen that was widely viewed as responsible for the Dodgers’ early exit from the playoffs.

Colletti was prevented by ownership from making midseason adjustments to the bullpen, people familiar with the situation said. Top prospects Corey Seager, Julio Urias and Joc Pederson were labeled as untouchable by Kasten. So were some second-tier prospects.

Colletti didn’t complain Tuesday.

“You always try to leave something better than when you got here,” he said, and that, he added, is what he did.

Times staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this report.