Fall River native Brandon Gomes named general manager of Dodgers as 'dream' comes true

The dream has come true. And it didn't take very long.

Brandon Gomes, 37, the Durfee High graduate and former Major League pitcher, was named the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday. The Fall River native and Tulane University graduate joined the Dodgers as minor league pitching coordinator in 2016 and had served as vice-president and assistant general manager for the last three seasons, including the World Series championship season of 2020.

Gomes played parts of five seasons for the Tampa Rays, where current Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was his general manager. Back then, Gomes said, he would pick Friedman's brain about the front office side of baseball, and he was intrigued.

“Once I was done playing, my dream was to become the general manager of a major league team,” Gomes said on Thursday from Los Angeles. “I'm very fortunate and very grateful.”

The Dodgers general manager position had been vacant since Farhan Zaidi left L.A. for the San Francisco Giants following the 2018 season.

Gomes said he will continue to handle many of the roles he has tackled for the past three years and likely take on more as the season progresses in what he describes as Friedman's “divide and conquer mentality” in which the staff splits up duties and responsibilities. ”That's very much how Andrew functions. That's the way he's wired,” Gomes said.

When Gomes hung up his baseball spikes in 2016 and joined the Dodgers, he said it was a relief to have a job where his daily performance, especially the tough outings, were not replayed to the world. Now, his remarkably rapid rise to general manager has plopped Gomes back into the fan and media spotlight. Instead of his pitching being scrutinized, it will be player personnel moves – trades, free agent signings, Dodger re-signings and non-re-signings, promotions – that will be subject to serious scrutiny in Los Angeles and beyond.

Anonymous he is not.

But Gomes said he understands the intense fan (and as a result media) attention. “We welcome it because the fans are a big part of what we do.” He said having been a major league player, and “not the greatest of players”, has left him with a properly thick skin when it comes to dealing with criticism.

“And some of the stuff you can take with a grain of salt,” he said.

Drafted and signed by the San Diego Padres, Gomes said that following his first year in the minor leagues took his LSATs and got his law school letters of recommendation set because he thought he would be released.

Instead, the brilliant bulldog forged the five-year major league career after Friedman, who also played baseball at Tulane, traded to get him with the Tampa organization. Fast forward a decade and a half, and law's loss has become Major League Baseball's gain.

The Los Angeles Times wrote that after the 2021 season, Gomes reportedly was considered as a candidate for other GM jobs, including for the New York Mets. Asked if the Mets had approached him and, if so, had he interviewed, Gomes said that he had not interviewed for the job and that he's very excited to still be with the Dodgers.

“He's had such an incredible impact on everything he's touched,” Friedman told the Los Angeles Times. “He's moved pretty quickly, but you could argue that he could have moved even quicker.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Fall River native Brandon Gomes named Dodgers general manager