Did Andrew Friedman hurt his Dodgers legacy with bad offseason and trade deadline?

The Dodgers' estimated $393 million payroll is the highest of any team in baseball this season — $53 million more than the second-place Mets, per FanGraphs. They committed a total of $450 million to free agent signings, club options, and extensions this offseason, and owe six players over $2 billion to be paid out through 2046.

It was unprecedented spending and, to the rest of baseball, unfathomable gluttony. Not only did the Dodgers add an ace when they didn't really need one (Blake Snell), they got two of 2024's best relievers (Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates), a young Japanese phenom for league minimum (Roki Sasaki), their 2024 breakout star (Teoscar Hernández), and extended a player they'd had their eyes on for years and finally managed to get at the trade deadline (Tommy Edman).

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said that the Dodgers were just trying to reward their loyal fanbase, and Dodgers fans ate it up while the rest of baseball raged.

Now, less than two weeks left in the regular season, the only people outraged with the Dodgers are Dodgers fans. All of the aforementioned players (and even a few more) have either been underperforming or injured for most of the season, and the Dodgers failed to secure a first-round bye for the first time since 2021.

Dodgers fans are having to reconsider Andrew Friedman's offseason spending as disappointing regular season comes to an end

Snell was hurt for five months. Scott and Yates have been two of the worst pitchers out of the Dodgers' bullpen when they haven't been injured. Sasaki is stuck in Triple-A after a disappointing start to his MLB career (and then an injury). Hernández is having his worst season since 2019. Edman has been on and off the IL and is hitting .228 with a .670 OPS.

Michael Conforto might end up being one of the Dodgers' worst free agent signings in recent history. Blake Treinen has gone back and forth from being hurt and being terrible. The only signings fans might actually be able to look more favorably upon are Clayton Kershaw and Hyeseong Kim's.

Friedman's faith in the roster he constructed in the offseason was so strong that he decided to do little-to-nothing at the trade deadline, and he keeps being proven wrong.

If the Dodgers happen to win the World Series again, or even if they make it to the NLCS and lose admirably, it'll take some heat off of Friedman, but there will still be serious concerns about the team's future with this many long-term contracts that are looking ridiculously ugly right now.