The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently gearing up for the 2026 MLB season, in which they will look to defend their 2025 World Series title. Despite being the reigning two-time champions, the Dodgers were quite busy in the offseason, signing both Edwin Diaz and Kyle Tucker on the free agent market and drawing further rage from the rest of the MLB landscape in the process.
One person who has great respect for what the Dodgers are doing is Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, who recently made a move of his own by acquiring sharpshooter Luke Kennard.
Recently, Pelinka spoke on his respect for Dodgers president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman.
“Being able to tap into a person like Andrew Friedman for best practices. He's so incredibly smart and has done such an amazing job bringing championships to the Dodgers,” said Pelinka, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN on X, formerly Twitter.
The Dodgers and Lakers are both now owned by Mark Walter, who completed his acquisition of the Lakers from the Buss family last year. Of course, the Dodgers have one major advantage that the Lakers don't, which is the benefit of the lack of a salary cap in the MLB, which has raised accusations of the team essentially being allowed to purchase World Series championships over the last couple of years.
Still, the Lakers will be happy to know that they have an owner who is willing to shell out serious cash, even if there are limits in the NBA landscape to how many top-dollar players a team can acquire.
Friedman may have the best infrastructure in the world at his disposal, but he has still done a good job of convincing the top free agents in the world to swallow their pride and join Los Angeles year after year.
In any case, the Dodgers' season is slated to begin in late March.
