Dodgers notes: Andrew Friedman worries, Jason Heyward joins front office

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The Dodgers offense, something still to be talked about in negative tones.

After the second consecutive World Series win, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told his wife that could alleviate some stress in April and May. His wife didn’t believe him, and his theory has not panned out so far this spring.

“I should’ve gotten it before”, he told Maddie Lee and the L.A. Times on Tuesday.

“What we know for a fact is every guy is going to have ups and downs,” Friedman said. “And this is some of the randomness of baseball. Sometimes those happen spread out, which allows your offense to thrive, and sometimes they happen concurrently, and that’s when you go into some real offensive lulls. And I feel like that’s more random than anything.”

Random or not, it has been a rough watch. Shohei Ohtani homered on Tuesday, but was out of Wednesday night’s lineup, and is expected to be out of Thursday’s lineup too. Manager Dave Roberts said the homer didn’t change his mind about the week going forward.

“I don’t like the bait and switch,” Roberts said. “Sometimes that might’ve been something where, you know you get a couple days off of hitting, and it might have freed him up [Tuesday]. You just never know. To go back on a pact or decision that we came upon or I came upon, I don’t like that.”

Former Dodger Jason Heyward has joined the team as a special assistant. Heyward recently retired, and stated that in his last few years of playing, he really became interested in the front office side of the game.

“As I came down the stretch over the last few years, it was watching different roles, having to make bullpen moves, having to make lineup matchups and things like that,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Let’s continue to have conversations on those and see what I can bring as a former player to that side of things.’”

For now Heyward’s role is fluid, although he was with the Dodgers team on Wednesday. Jack Harris of the California Post has more details on the hire here.

Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic also has some notes on Heyward’s rejoining the organization. Heyward is expected to be with the big-league club though the weekend and will be spending time with some of the Dodgers affiliates. He also could work with some of the young outfielders in the organization as he is expected to be on the field at times.

“He’s got the clubhouse part covered,” manager Dave Roberts said. “So part of it is working with the front-office guys and getting to see the other side of things and how it operates. (It’s) going to be very helpful for his growth and also for the organization.”

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