The Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday promoted former reliever Brandon Gomes to general manager. The team further announced that  Damon Jones was appointed as the new Vice President, Assistant General Manager & Baseball Legal Counsel, Alex Slater was promoted to Vice President, Assistant General Manager, Brandon McDaniel to Vice President of Player Performance and Thomas Albert to Head Athletic Trainer. 

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Dodgers were without a general manager since Farhan Zaidi left to join the rival San Francisco Giants in November 2018.

Gomes has been Dodgers’ assistant general manager since 2019. 

Talking about the new appointee, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, during a conversation with Los Angeles Times’ Jack Harris, said, “He’s had such an incredible impact on everything he’s touched. He’s moved pretty quickly, but you could argue that he could’ve moved even quicker.”

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Who is Brandon Gomes?

Brandon Gomes played for the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball (MLB) before retiring in 2016. The 37-year-old, in the very next year, joined the Los Angeles Dodgers as their pitching coordinator. He was promoted to director of player development in 2017 and made the assistant general manager in 2019. 

He turned down a chance to interview with the New York Mets for their president of baseball operations job earlier this offseason. 

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

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During his playing days, Gomes pitched to a 4.20 ERA in 167 relief innings with the Tampa Bay Rays. In 2015, he signed a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs. He was released on June 4, 2016.

Others in Dodgers’ top-level management are Friedman, who oversees baseball operations, former Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres general manager Josh Byrnes who serves as vice president of baseball operations and Jeffrey Kingston, who was an assistant general manager with Gomes.