Dodgers promote Brandon Gomes to GM, first to hold title since 2018

While Major League baseball remains locked out, the Los Angeles Dodgers took care of some business by promoting Brandon Gomes to general manager.

Gomes, 37, is the 12th general manager in franchise history and the first to hold the title since Canadian-born Farhan Zaidi left the team to join the San Francisco Giants as president of baseball operations following the 2018 season.

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman had overseen roster construction without a general manager in the interim. The Dodgers have made the playoffs in nine consecutive seasons — including seven under Friedman — and won the World Series in 2020.

“We weren’t in a rush to do it, but if pressed at that time, I would have guessed that it would be Brandon,” Friedman told the Los Angeles Times when asked why it took so long to replace Zaidi. “And all he’s done is continue to dominate everything he’s touched since that time.”

Gomes, a former Major League pitcher for the Rays — where Friedman was an executive before joining the Dodgers — retired from playing in 2016 and has worked various jobs with the Dodgers ever since. He began as a pitching coordinator in 2017, served as director of player development in 2018 and spent the past three seasons as vice president and assistant general manager.

“This is something that, since I got done playing, I was hoping to get to at some point in my career,” Gomes told the Times. “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.”