Dodgers Notes: Friedman, Frazier, Turner

Japanese pitcher Kenta Maeda has traveled to Los Angeles to start meeting with teams, according to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register (on Twitter).  The Dodgers, he adds, are expected to be among the clubs that place a bid in order to negotiate with the right-hander.

If the Dodgers are serious about making a run at the Hiroshima Carp star, they might find that the market for him isn’t as competitive as it might have been a few weeks ago.  We learned last week that the Red Sox will not submit a bid to negotiate with Maeda thanks to the mammoth deal given to David Price.  At the Winter Meetings, Giants GM Bobby Evans told MLBTR that his club had internal conversations about Maeda, but they’re almost certainly out on him after adding Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto.

Here’s more out of L.A.:

• Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters, including Shaikin (Twitter link) that he didn’t land Todd Frazier himself because he wanted Justin Turner to remain at third base.  Acquiring Frazier and putting him elsewhere on the diamond would have been “messy,” in Friedman’s estimation.  Frazier, of course, went to the White Sox in Wednesday’s three-way deal involving the Reds and Dodgers.
• Friedman says that the Dodgers like the newly-acquired Frankie Montas as a starting pitcher and, if not, they see him as an “impact bullpen arm,” Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets.  Many scouts see Montas as a power reliever.     Friedman says that his scouts believe that Montas has one of the best fastball/slider combos in the minors, Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times tweets.
• Friedman said he knows some teams are interested in the players he acquired today, but he cautioned that one trade is not necessarily precursor to another, Shaikin tweets.  Still, when asked if he’s now more comfortable with the idea of parting with elite pitching prospects, Friedman answered in the affirmative (link).
• In an interview on KLAC, Friedman did acknowledge that the trade improves the team’s “trade capital to match up with other teams,” according to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register (on Twitter).