What will the Lakers look like with top Dodgers execs helping lead the way? That's the big question in L.A.

Andrew Friedman’s job was fairly straightforward. Mark Walter, the billionaire chief executive of the financial and investment advisory firm Guggenheim Partners, had spent a record-setting sum to purchase one of America’s iconic sports franchises, a crown jewel in a prime market with a rich history: the Los Angeles Dodgers. Two years into his tenure, the team was good.

Really good. But Walter wanted more. He believed he had the blueprint, too.

If he could add on a state-of-the-art, data-driven front office, one where no expense would be spared and no edge would go unexplored, he’d have the makings of a juggernaut, one that would dominate on the field and become a cash cow in the process. To execute that plan, he pried Friedman, widely regarded as one of the best minds in Major League Baseball, away from the Tampa Bay (then-Devil) Rays in October 2014 and named him president of baseball operations. A few weeks later Friedman pried Farhan Zaidi away from Billy Beane’s Oakland Athletics and named him Dodgers GM.

Together, they turned the Dodgers into an organization widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated and successful in all of sports. They’ve won three titles over the past six years. “When Andrew went to the Dodgers, their processes and systems were lagging behind the rest of baseball,” a longtime MLB executive told Yahoo Sports.