NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 11, 2026

Andrew Friedman

American Family Field

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. From a team-building perspective, what stands out to you about Matt Arnold and what the Brewers have done and how this team is constructed?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: I think the success they've had over the last handful of years, the deepness of their roster really stands out. It's hard over 162 to do what they've done, and then it's also hard to get to October, it's hard to have success in October.

I think from what Matt does, what Murph does, how well they work together, I think they continue to put themselves in really strong positions. I think there's really not a glaring weakness. So 1 through 26, they can beat you in a lot of different ways. Those are the kind of things that I feel like you need in October.

If you're just reliant on hitting a homer, tough way to live life. They just have so many different ways to do it. So I think it speaks to Matt and his team's ability to construct the roster and then how well they work together with Murph to bring the most out of these guys.

Q. With Murph, how long has that friendly banter gone on between the two of you? And is he the one guy in baseball who calls you Andy?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: Oh, Patty (laughter). It's probably ratcheted up the last four or five years, but obviously a tremendous amount of respect for him. I think his ability to get the most out of his guys, and you watch in game just his ability to put guys in the best positions to succeed, and he's got some energy to him.

Q. We talk a lot about the starting rotation for understandable reasons, but when you think about how you structured your bullpen, what went into this year of kind of prioritizing D as in building it from there, to make this an equal strength for your team?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: We've been fortunate to play in October a number of times, and some we've gone into with a really strong bullpen. Other times we've gone in with not as strong of a bullpen. Obviously your goal when putting together a roster in the off-season is to have as deep and as good of a team as you possibly can.

Obviously things happen throughout the course of a season, and it's having the depth to withstand that and then also the depth to be able to construct the most well-rounded team you can going into October.

Last year obviously our bullpen was not a strength of ours. For us, it was about constructing -- we felt confident that Tanner Scott would bounce back. Just the stuff, where he was, we felt confident that he would. We talked about this when we signed Edwin. There was one guy who was really on our list and felt like the way he could complement Tanner, Tanner could complement him, that it would have a chance to be a serious late-inning weapon, the combo of the two.

Fortunately we got to see it some last round, and we feel like with those two and then the guys around it, we feel like it's a real strength of this roster as well.

Q. As your roster has begun to age, how have you sort of managed to try to maximize your ability to win with this core but also being mindful with the time that you might not be able to win with this core anymore and keep going?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: Yeah, we've talked about this a lot, that with where we are in the success cycle, the success we have had, we have done the opposite of being like flippant about it. Oh, it's great that we won. Now we can put our feet up. For us it's about pressing the advantage we have right now.

We have a very talented core, and while a good number of them are getting up there in years, the experience, the way they prepare, the way they play the game, we feel like is a real competitive advantage. So we've been aggressive to supplement around that group, all the while pouring ourselves into our next wave.

Obviously making a trade for Skubal eats into that. We traded some really talented players. That being said, we still feel like there are a lot of guys coming.

It's tricky because you have to find the right balance. We have expectations of our regular season goal is to win the West and get a bye. It's hard to transition young players onto your roster. It's a hard adjustment from Triple-A to the Major League level. We've done it some over the years. Some guys we haven't had the patience long enough to kind of see it through.

And that's the challenge we have with the expectations we have. So we have to be mindful of having a really high standard but also transitioning some of our young players. We've seen it some, Andy Pages is featured prominently for us, Will Smith, Alex Freeland got a lot of opportunities this year. Dalton Rushing was a big part when Will missed time. And then late in the year we saw with Josue De Paula.

We've got a lot of guys coming after that as well. So for us it's about almost having a split personality to do everything we can to maximize our chances of winning with our Major League roster, and the other side of our personality is pouring ourselves into doing everything we can to have as much talent coming, and we feel really good about that part as well.

Q. I know the deadline you said you don't trade for players just to keep them away from other teams, but with Tarik's situation specifically and the fact that one of the other teams was interested in him, the one you're facing right now, did that enter into how aggressive you guys were at all? And how much bigger does that trade feel now knowing you have him in this series as opposed to potentially facing him?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: I think for us obviously the driver was acquiring the player. That being said, I'm sure it's in the back of your head, of the teams that are interested. Certainly not a driver, but not nothing either.

As far as how happy I am, I am very happy it's Skubal versus Mis and not Mis and Skubal in the next two.

Q. When you think about the final four teams that are left, obviously you worked with Matt in Tampa and Erik as well, when you think back on your first interactions, the first time you worked with Matt Arnold and Erik Neander, the potential you saw in them at the early stages of their careers?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: I'll say Matt Arnold, he's big time. I went to Carnevor steakhouse last night, and Matt Arnold has his own knife there with his name on it. When we worked together, I thought he's going to be really successful. I didn't think he's going to have his own knife one day. I'll tell you, it worked well. I used it. It worked well.

Obviously worked together with Matt and Erik for a long time. Both are very creative, big motors, really good leaders. To see each of their respective teams having success is not surprising at all. I think the creative thought but also the ability to connect and relate to everyone, it's not surprising that they have organizations that are so synced up, and watching them have the success they've had is awesome.

Obviously root for them a lot, but obviously not against us.

Q. Lastly, you circled back on Edwin Diaz and bringing him in. Can you take us through -- you think about the month that he was on the IL and then he comes back in mid-September and looks like he's back. The things that you can do as an organization from a performance and health standpoint, can you take us through what went on during that time to help him get back to being the pitcher he is?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: With Edwin, it was -- he had just gotten out of whack mechanically. Had some nagging injury stuff that I think we see this a lot with guys. Sometimes you're able to put your finger on it. Sometimes you're not. But a guy can have a simple adductor strain, and the downstream effects of how that affects their biomechanics, they're not hitting the same, they're not throwing the same.

It's hard because your brain has created that different movement pattern to help compensate for an injury, and that definitely happened with Edwin. So to get him back was going to take time. I think the good thing we had working in our favor is who Edwin is and how he's wired. He wanted to dive in. He wanted to do anything and everything to get back.

And as he's working his way back in Triple-A, talking to him along the way. It's like, okay, we see progress. We were trying to get this, we got to this; but here we're still working. And to his credit, he said, hey, I'll stay however long it takes to get right. I'll do whatever it takes. When I come back, I'll pitch in the fifth inning, sixth inning. I just want to win. And all of his actions have backed that up.

Q. You guys talk a lot about heartbeat and trusting your guys' heartbeat. Obviously experience plays a lot into that. How often is that innate? How do you guys evaluate that? How do you scout for that? Is there metrics for that?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: I think some of it is a culture. I think some of our guys may not be as prepared, as ready for a moment if they were in a different clubhouse. I think the standards that Shohei, that Freddie, that Mookie through their work, through how they prepare, I think has trickled down. Munc has been a big part of what we've done for a long time. We've got a lot of those guys.

I think the combination of these personalities together has only enhanced it. I think so much of that calm heartbeat. Some of it is definitely experience, and some of it is just how prepared they are. So it's easier to breathe through a moment and be of mind to perform when you're as prepared as our guys are.

So I think that combination is very special, and now it's about bringing in guys that we feel like can fit into that ecosystem and not someone that we feel like might disrupt that.

Q. When you were first building winning teams in Tampa, you were having starters -- Price and Garza and Shields especially -- who could really pitch deep in games and complete games. Baseball has changed obviously. What have you learned about what a top starter can handle now versus then, and why has it changed so much in those 10, 15 years?

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: I'm not great at answering these perspective questions just because I haven't slowed the game down enough to really think and look back. We've definitely seen some evolving and some things, but to be able to compare this to that -- I mean, I think so much of it.

If you are doing it in a way to optimize for your roster, you are identifying what the strengths of your roster are and trying to leverage them.

In '24 our bullpen was the strength of our pitching staff, and we leveraged it as much as we could. In '25 our starters would. So I think so much more should fall out of what talent level you have, what your strengths are, and how to leverage it than I do about some overarching like relievers throw more now, so we should just prematurely pull a pitcher.

I think it gets so much at who your guy is, what their strengths are, what that matchup is to optimize for your 26 guys to try to win 11 games in October. So my mind doesn't think about it in like, oh, this is a trend and this is what you do. We've talked about this a lot. I will say I feel strongly there are not 150 great Major League starting pitchers on planet Earth right now that you would just say, hey, go take a playoff game and go.

So there's just a dearth of those guys in the world. So when you have one, it is an awesome feeling. From a quality of life standpoint, from a preparation standpoint. Obviously it doesn't mean that they go out and get 21 outs, but it certainly helps in the preparation going in. Oftentimes they do. We've seen it a lot with our guys the last year plus.

Again, for me, so much of it is just about trying to leverage the strengths of your roster, and that's how we think about it.