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Dodgers

Dodgers Can Sign Nakamura

By Steve Henson
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The Dodgers won negotiating rights to Japanese third baseman Norihiro Nakamura on Monday after submitting the highest bid during a four-day posting period.

Nakamura, 31, is expected to be offered a minor league contract with a guaranteed salary if he makes the Dodgers. The 13-year veteran and the all-time home run hitter for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes auditioned for the Dodgers last year during spring training.

It is anticipated that Jose Valentin and Antonio Perez would platoon at third base. Valentin, a left-handed hitter, batted .216 with 30 home runs for the Chicago White sox last season.

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-- Steve Henson

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Dodgers
Steve Henson

Steve Henson is a reporter with the Fast Break sports team at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as an assistant editor and reporter in the Sports department. Henson was a leader in digital-only newsrooms from 2007-19 as a senior editor and columnist at Yahoo Sports and as senior editor at the USA Today Sports Media Group. This is his second stint at The Times, having covered the Dodgers and UCLA as well as doing enterprise, investigative and features writing from 1985-2007. Henson was awarded first place in sports features in 2021 by the L.A. Press Club and has been honored several times by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and also by the California News Publishers Assn., the Football Writers Assn. of America and U.S. Basketball Writers Assn.

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