Andrew Friedman became Dodger president of baseball operations in October. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

By Cary Osborne

After Howie Kendrick’s introductory press conference today, Dodger president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke with reporters on a conference call about the moves the Dodgers have made this offseason. Here’s what he had to say …

“Our overarching goal coming onto the offseason was to take a very strong collection of players and do our best to mold it into a highly functioning baseball team. We feel like these moves speak to that, and we’re excited about the way our position-player group fits together, how they complement one another. And we feel like we have great length to our lineup with great balance as well.”

On not re-signing Hanley Ramirez:

“With Hanley, obviously a tremendous amount of respect for what he can do in this batter’s box. For us going forward, we didn’t feel like him playing shortstop put us in the best position, and obviously we have depth in other positions, so it made it more difficult for us to fit him. But he’s an incredibly gifted offensive player.”

On trading Dee Gordon:

“With Dee, he’s a dynamic player — something that when you get talent back you obviously have to give up something. It wasn’t easy for us to trade Dee. Again, he brought a dynamic to our lineup that we’re certainly going to miss. But we felt like the net result of that trade and the subsequent moves made sense for us.”

On trading Matt Kemp:

“With Matt, obviously he’s an incredibly gifted offensive player. I think the whole world saw what he’s capable of in the second half of the season. Again, this gets back to us doing everything we could to mold our roster into the most highly functioning baseball team as opposed to a collection of talent.”

On trading outfielders:

“It was really important for us coming into the offseason to trade one (outfielder), and now I think we’re just open-minded to different scenarios that make us a better team. Whether it’s an outfielder or somewhere else, we’re just now in kind of a mode of being opportunistic and continuing to target guys we like and we feel like fit us. And what that means and how that plays out, I don’t know right now.”

On defense and offense:

“There’s no question we’re going to be significantly better defensively. I think it’s going to help on the run-prevention side quite a but. And I’m not ready to say right now that we’re not going to be as good of an offensive team. I want to spend more time on it. I think our team home run total might be less, but I think we have a very deep lineup with real length to it one through eight with good balance, with switch hitters and right-left balance and guys coming off the bench that fit really well with our starters, so that I think we’re going to have a good offensive team.”

On Yasmani Grandal:

“We feel like Yasmani fits us incredibly well. He and A.J. (Ellis) will complement each other really well. He’s a switch-hitter with above average power. We really like the quality of his at-bats and how he grinds opposing pitchers. He has very strong defensive tools. I’m really excited with him working with Steve Yeager to continue to bring that to life on a nightly basis. We feel like we just added a young catcher who fits us incredibly well and hopefully will be a big part of our future success.

“We added a guy behind the plate who we feel like we’re going to get his prime years over his next four. That certainly played a role in our thought process.”

On pitch framing:

“It means quite a bit. Very simply said, (it’s) a guy’s ability to hold a strike as opposed to certain guys who may take a strike out of the zone with the way they receive it. Other guys have soft hands that can stick it and just put our pitchers in better position to get in the favorable counts that, from when they’re in rookie ball, our pitching coaches are stressing.”

Question from a reporter: “Are you aware the Dodger fans will hate you if the Matt Kemp trade doesn’t work out?”:

“Not anymore than we’ll hate ourselves. Look, all of us are focused on winning, and the fans’ passion is tremendous and I’m looking forward to experiencing the electricity in the building next year. I love the passion they have for the Dodgers, and everything we’re doing is in the vein of trying to put ourselves in the best position to make it into October and then play as long as we can.”

On if this looks like the team that will be at Camelback Ranch for Spring Training:

“I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where we can say, ‘Let’s sit back and put our feet on the desk.’ We’re always going to be looking at different areas and whether it’s on the margins or more significant. Any time you ask me this question, the bullpen will be an answer I will always give. I think it’s against my nature to ever feel comfortable with a bullpen. In the offseason, it’s so difficult to predict. Year to year it’s something we’ll continue to be mindful of and thinking through.”