The Dodgers have made their first move of the winter meetings but it wasn’t an addition to the team on the field but rather an addition to the front office.
Just two days after President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman told reporters that he was not planning to hire a new General Manager to replace Farhan Zaidi, the Dodgers have announced that they have hired Mariners Vice President and Assistant General Manager Jeff Kingston.
For those of you who don’t know who Jeff Kingston is, here is a little background of him. Kingston graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania with an economics degree. After graduating, he went to work in the Padres’ baseball operations department in 2001 as an intern under then Director of Player Development and now current Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein. In 2002 at the age of 24, Kingston became the Director of Baseball Operations for the Padres. He continued to work for the Padres under General Manager Kevin Towers until 2009 when he left the organization to become the Assistant General Manager for the Mariners under then General Manager Jack Zduriencik. Kingston had remained in his role with Seattle even with the departure of Zduriencik and hiring of Jerry Dipoto. During the past three seasons, Kingston worked as Dipoto’s top assistant, helping with player acquisitions, contract negotiations, and player evaluations. He also oversaw the player development and baseball analytics departments for the entire organization.
The addition of Kingston to the front office is huge as he will help fill the void that the departure of Zaidi created.