The Los Angeles Dodgers have promoted former big-league reliever Brandon Gomes to general manager, the team announced Tuesday. Gomes had been an assistant general manager since 2019. The Dodgers had been operating without a general manager since Farhan Zaidi left to join the rival San Francisco Giants in Nov. 2018.
“He’s had such an incredible impact on everything he’s touched,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times. “He’s moved pretty quickly, but you could argue that he could’ve moved even quicker.”
Gomes, 37, retired as a player in 2016 and joined the Dodgers the following year. He quickly ascended from pitching coordinator to director of player development to vice president and assistant general manager. Gomes turned down a chance to interview with the New York Mets for their president of baseball operations job earlier this offseason amid speculation the Dodgers would soon promote him.
“This is something that, since I got done playing, I was hoping to get to at some point in my career,” Gomes told Harris. “It’s just something that will be incredibly fulfilling, to continue to work with this group with the goal of winning as many championships as possible.”
Although the Dodgers did not have a general manager from 2019-21, the club was not lacking front office brainpower. Friedman oversees baseball operations, former Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres general manager Josh Byrnes serves as vice president of baseball operations, and Gomes and Jeffrey Kingston worked as assistant general managers.
In addition to Gomes, the Dodgers also promoted Alex Slater from director of baseball operations to vice president and assistant general manager on Tuesday. The team also hired Damon Jones away from the NFL‘s Washington Football Team and named him vice president, assistant general manager, and baseball legal counsel. He had been WFT’s general counsel.
Gomes pitched to a 4.20 ERA in 167 relief innings with the Tampa Bay Rays from 2011-15. As Rays general manager, Friedman acquired Gomes from San Diego in the Jason Bartlett trade in Dec. 2010. The two overlapped with Tampa until Friedman left to join the Dodgers in Oct. 2014.
The Dodgers went 106-56 in 2021, but finished second in the NL West to Zaidi’s 107-win Giants. Los Angeles advanced to the 2021 NLCS for the fifth time in the last six years after winning the 2020 World Series.
