Dodgers not done making moves

— -- SAN DIEGO -- It isn't true that while you were eating breakfast, the Los Angeles Dodgers made another trade. But by lunch? Um, I wouldn't bet against them.

If you thought the Dodgers were going to spend the rest of the winter meetings moping about not signing Jon Lester, well, their action-packed Wednesday at the Manchester Grand Hyatt pretty much established they had a few alternate plans on their board.

Hello, Jimmy Rollins. And Howie Kendrick. And Brandon McCarthy. And then there were those four or five glorious hours that comprised Andrew Heaney's sensational Dodgers career.

All of that unfolded rapid-fire on Wednesday, as Andrew Friedman, Farhan Zaidi and the new Dodgers braintrust began executing their vision of the 2015 Dodgers, a team that clearly has a chance to be practically unrecognizable, at least to Frank McCourt, by Opening Day.

But I'd caution you against thinking you should start evaluating any of those moves, in and of themselves, as separate entities. Because this is a regime of deep thinkers whose brains and blueprints don't fit that mold.

Every move they make or contemplate is obviously connected to another move or 12 that haven't been completed yet. So fasten those seatbelts, because this ride is just getting wild.

I have no idea what the Dodgers' suite at these winter meetings actually looks like. I wasn't invited in. But it isn't hard to imagine an entire wall made up of intricate multicolored labyrinths, winding through 50 different paths that somehow intersect, in the end, at a place that looks exactly like Dodger Stadium.

I'm not sure how Al Campanis and Buzzie Bavasi used to go about making deals at the winter meetings back in their day. But I can guarantee it bore no resemblance to the grand plans Friedman and the new Dodgers are cooking up these days.

In theory, all they did Wednesday -- assuming their trade with the Philadelphia Phillies for Rollins eventually gets completed, as expected -- was assemble a new double-play combination (Rollins and Kendrick) and sign a fourth or fifth starter (McCarthy).

But as executives of other teams observed all of this unfolding, it was clear to every one of them: This is just the beginning.

There could be one or two more deals ahead. Or possibly 15 or 20.

Friedman and his coterie of brainy assistants, described by one club's delegation as basically a baseball think tank, aren't just changing the face of the Dodgers. They're attempting to chemically alter this team's DNA.

On the surface, Dee Gordon and Dan Haren were the only two established Dodgers who were pointed toward the emergency exits Wednesday. But obviously, much more is coming. Wait. Make that much, much, much, much more.

Is Matt Kemp next? An executive of one team who talked to the Dodgers reported Wednesday that there was no doubt that if they get "the right deal," Kemp "is gone."

But this front office isn't hesitating anymore when it contemplates the downside of moving Kemp, whose right-handed thump and star power will be difficult to replace in many ways.

Instead, this group is plotting what a Kemp deal could make possible. How much money could be saved. How at least one big league roster need (ostensibly catcher) could be filled. And how many more prospects could be added to the system ...

Which could then be used for the next big deal. Or deals.

Sooner or later, it appears, at least one of the prospects from the San Diego Padres (in a Kemp trade) or Miami Marlins (in the Gordon deal) would go to Philadelphia to complete the Rollins trade, which was technically on hold Wednesday night -- apparently because the second player the Dodgers would like to send to the Phillies hasn't been acquired yet.

But the complicated structure of the Rollins deal -- in which the Dodgers are lining up one trade with the assumption that at least one of the players involved will be picked up in a second trade -- is actually a window into what comes next.

If they can reel in enough high-end young players, couldn't that allow them to make an even bigger deal down the road -- for someone like Cole Hamels maybe -- without having to throw in their most advanced hitting prospect, Joc Pederson, or their best pitching prospect, Jose Urias?

Of course it might. But if not, it creates a deep pool of young players to use in some other trade. Or trades.

And before you know it, there's an excellent chance you'll look up on, say, Valentine's Day, and notice that Friedman has somehow found a way to transform the big league roster, the depth of this farm system, the payroll and both the makeup and process of this front office -- all in a few short months.

So don't make the mistake of judging this team based on any one entry in the old transactions column this winter. That would be so 2012.

These are the new Dodgers, the Andrew Friedman Dodgers. And while no one can promise they'll win more games or more postseason series than the Dodgers teams that came before them, we can promise you this:

With every move they make, they'll already be looking farther beyond the horizon than Al Campanis or Buzzie Bavasi ever thought was possible.