Dodgers Promote Brandon Gomes To General Manager
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Dodgers filled a position that has been vacant since 2018 on Tuesday, when they promoted Brandon Gomes to General Manager.
Gomes joined the team's front office in 2017 following a brief professional career spent in between the Major Leagues and the minors.
He will be the first person to fill the role since the departure of Farhan Zaidi, who left the organization to join the San Francisco Giants as President of Baseball Operations in 2018. Zaidi acted as GM for the Dodgers since 2014.
Gomes told Spectrum SportsNet LA on Tuesday that he was, "Really appreciative and grateful for the opportunity."
Gomes was initially hired into the player development department as a pitching coordinator. Just one year later and he was promoted to director of player development, and again in 2019 when he was named vice president and assistant general manager.
Now, at just 37-years-old, Gomes becomes one of the youngest general managers in the league, joining just three others (San Francisco Giants' Scott Harris (34); Chicago Cubs' Carter Hawkins, 37; Tampa Bay Rays' Peter Bendix, 37), Tampa Bay Rays) that hold the position at under-40.
"It's progressed quickly ... I don't think I could've foreseen this path, but taking it day-by-day and trying to the best I can at each opportunity was really the goal from the get go," he remarked.
His fast rise through the Dodgers organization led him to consideration for multiple front office positions, according to The Los Angeles Times. One of those positions was the same position for the New York Mets.
Gomes' initial hire with the Dodgers came at the hands of current President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman. The two had a prior connection during Gomes' playing time, when in 2010, the Tampa Bay Rays, where Friedman was general manager at the time, acquired Gomes in a trade.
He credits his propensity for front office operations to his curiosity of different moves made throughout his playing career, including getting sent down to the minor leagues 12 times over the course of his time with Tampa Bay.
Originally from Massachusetts, Gomes was drafted in the Seventeenth Round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres. He played his college baseball at Tulane University, where he spent four years.
Before he could make his MLB debut, he was traded to the Rays in 2010. He made his debut a year later on May 3, 2011. He would stay with the Rays' organization until 2015 when he signed a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs, and he was released in 2016.
Gomes spent his professional career as a relief pitcher, and over 173 career games he had a 4.20 ERA with 144 strikeouts. He earned one save in his MLB career.
The Dodgers also announced a slew of other front office moves, including:
- Damon Jones, promoted to vice president, assistant general manager and baseball legal counsel,
- Alex Slater, promoted to vice president and assistant general manager,
- Brandon McDaniel, promoted to vice president of player performance,
- Thomas Albert, promoted to head athletic trainer,
- Rob Hill, promoted to Director of Minor League Pitching.
